MESSAGE  AND  METHOD 


The  Report  of  Commission  II 
to  the  Congress  on  Christian 
WortTn  Latin  America 


Panama,  February  10-20,  1916 


I 


MESSAGE  AND  METHOD 


The  Report  of  Commission  II 
to  the  Congress  on  Christian 
Work  in  Latin  America 


Panama,  February  10-20,  1916 


Published  by 

The  Committee  on  Cooperation  in  Latin  America 
25  Madison  Avenue,  New  York  City 
1916 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2017  with  funding  from 
Columbia  University  Libraries 


https://archive.org/details/messagemethodrepOOcong 


CONTENTS 


Chapter 

Foreword  . 


Page 

• 5 


I — Introduction 


7 


II — Relevant  Facis  in  Latin-Amekican  Civil- 
ization . . . . . . .II 

III —  The  Aim  and  Message  of  the  Evangeitcal 

Churches  .....  34 

IV —  The  Evangelical  Churches  and  the 

Social  Gospel  . . . . -43 

V — The  Christian  Message  and  the  Educated 

Classes  ......  58 

VI — The  Preparation  for  Christian  Work  in 

Latin  America  . . . . *72 

VII — Findings  ......  81 

List  of  Members  of  the  Commission  . . .84 

List  of  Correspondents  .....  86 

Appendix — Questions  Sent  to  Corresponding 
Members  of  the  Commission  . . . • 91 


3 


FOREWORD 


In  these  days  of  great  interest  in  Latin  America,  the 
Panama  Congress  stands  out  preeminently  as  the  first 
united  effort  of  the  Christian  forces  to  make  a careful 
study  of  the  social,  educational  and  spiritual  life  of  these 
growing  nations.  The  Congress  which  met  at  Panama 
was  a delegated  body  with  304  carefully  chosen  repre- 
sentatives from  more  than  fifty  organizations,  coming 
from  twenty-two  different  nations.  This  gathering  of 
many  representative  leaders  of  the  religious  life  of  these 
nations  gave  its  time  largely  to  the  consideration  of  the 
reports  of  eight  Commissions,  one  of  which  reported  each 
week  day  of  the  Congress.  These  Commissions  were  as 
follows : 

I.  Survey  and  Occupation. 

II.  Message  and  Method. 

III.  Education. 

IV.  Literature. 

V.  Women’s  Work. 

VI.  The  Church  in  the  Field. 

VII.  The  Home  Base. 

VIII.  Cooperation  and  Unity. 

These  reports  probably  represent  the  most  thorough 
investigation  yet  made  of  the  spiritual  life  of  Latin  Amer- 
ica. For  more  than  a year  the  Commissions,  composed 
largely  of  trained  students  of  Latin-American  life  and 
the  science  of  missions,  carried  on  their  investigations. 
The  preliminary  drafts,  prepared  from  hundreds  of  pa- 
pers received  from  Latin  America  in  answer  to  inquiries, 
were  sent  in  proof  sheet  form  to  some  two  hundred  ca- 
pable critics,  for  their  suggestions.  In  the  light  of  these 


5 


criticisms  the  reports  were  rewritten.  Joint  meetings  of 
members  of  the  several  Commissions  were  held  from 
time  to  time  for  comparative  study.  The  reports  were 
finally  placed  in  the  hands  of  an  editorial  committee, 
which  spent  several  weeks  of  diligent  work  on  them  be- 
fore they  were  printed  and  sent  to  the  delegates  to  the 
Congress  for  their  study. 

The  presentaion  of  the  reports  at  Panama  made  a 
deep  impression.  While  all  of  them  are  to  be  printed  in 
permanent  form,  together  with  the  discussions  at  Panama, 
as  soon  as  possible,  there  was  such  demand  for  the  im- 
mediate and  extensive  circulation  of  the  Report  on 
Message  and  Method,  that  the  Committee  on  Coopera- 
tion in  Latin  America  has  thought  best  to  issue  it  in 
this  inexpensive  form. 

It  represents  the  results  of  the  Commission’s  study 
concerning  the  spiritual  inheritances  of  Latin  America 
and  its  judgment  as  to  the  message  that  is  needed  by 
these  growing  nations  as  they  face  their  new  life. 

This  report,  with  the  reports  of  the  seven  other  Com- 
missions and  the  discussions  and  addresses  at  Panama, 
will  be  published  in  three  large  volumes  on  September 
1st  by  the  Missionary  Education  Movement.  Announce- 
ments of  this  and  other  publications  growing  out  of  the 
Congress  will  be  found  in  the  last  pages  of  this  booklet. 

Beside  the  work  done  by  this  Commission  and  its  cor- 
respondents, large  credit  must  be  given  to  the  editorial 
committee,  especially  to  its  chairman.  Dr.  Frank  K.  San- 
ders, and  its  secretary,  Mr.  Charles  E.  Fahs,  for  their 
efficient  and  unstinted  service  in  the  preparation  of  this 
and  other  reports. 

Robert  E.  Speer, 

Chairman  of  the  Committee  on 

Cooperation  in  Latin  America. 

April  25,  1916. 


6 


CHAPTER  I 


INTRODUCTION 

The  task  of  this  Commission  is  twofold,  viz.,  (i)  to 
draw  up  a brief  statement  of  those  aspects  of  the  Chris- 
tian message  which  would  seem  to  require  special  em- 
phasis at  the  present  time  in  Latin  America,  and  (2)  to 
suggest  methods  of  presenting  and  interpreting  the  mes- 
sage, and  of  most  helpfully  applying  its  truths  in  prac- 
tical ways  to  actual  conditions  in  the  countries  concerned. 
The  statement  and  suggestions  are  made  in  the  light  of 
the  conspectus  of  the  whole  field  as  set  forth  in  the  pre- 
ceding report  of  Commission  I,  but  they  are  based  chiefly 
on  independent  investigations  carried  on  by  Commission 
II  itself,  through  abundant  correspondence  and  research, 
and  through  special  conferences  with  collaborating  au- 
thorities competent  to  speak  for  all  parts  of  the  Latin- 
American  world. 

The  Commission  has  assumed  that  in  the  sphere  of 
fundamental  religious  values — the  spiritual,  intellectual 
and  social  needs  whose  satisfaction  has  to  do  with  man’s 
right  relations  to  God  and  to  his  fellow-man,  and  with  the 
highest  welfare  of  nations — Latin  America  does  not  differ 
from  North  America,  or  from  any  other  land  whether 
nominally  Christian  or  non-Christian,  however  apparent 
may  be  the  diversities  in  national  temperament,  historical 
experience,  present  status  and  external  forms  of  the  re- 
spective civilizations.  Beside  this  recognition  of  the 
identity  in  all  lands  of  fundamental  religious  needs 
growing  out  of  common  humanity  and  brotherhood,  the 
Commission  would  urge  the  validity  of  the  corresponding 
Christian  conviction  that  the  gospel  of  Christ  is  univer- 


Twofold  task 
of  the 
Commission 


Three  assumptions: 
(1)  Religious  needs 
are  everywhere  the 
same 


(2)  The  gospel  ade- 
quately meets  these 
needs. 


7 


(3)  Evangelical 
Christianity  must 
impart  it 


The  discussion 
timely. 


Latin  America’s  new 
political  life  an 
earnest  of  a religious 
awakening. 


sally  identical  in  its  essential  truths  and  in  its  power  to 
meet  the  deepest  needs  of  the  soul.  The  gospel  for  Latin 
America,  as  for  all  the  world,  is  a message  of  life — suffi- 
cient, abundant,  inexhaustible.  Furthermore,  the  Com- 
mission conceives  that  the  right  and  only  function,  as 
well  as  the  unescapable  obligation,  of  the  evangelical 
Churches  in  Latin  America,  as  elsewhere,  is  faithfully  to 
proclaim,  to  interpret  and  to  practice  the  Christian  gos- 
pel in  its  purity  and  fullness,  in  order  to  secure  its  vol- 
untary acceptance  by  those  who  have  not  received  it,  and 
to  seek  the  application  of  its  principles  and  the  communi- 
cation of  its  spirit  to  individual,  social  and  national  life. 

The  timeliness  of  the  theme  of  this  Commission  is  suf- 
ficiently indicated  by  mention  of  the  wide-spread  solici- 
tude concerning  the  religious  life  of  Latin  America, 
which,  in  the  last  few  years,  has  emerged  in  many  parts 
of  the  Christian  world,  a solicitude  to  which  the  strongest 
expression  has  been  given  by  religious  leaders,  both  Ro- 
man Catholic  and  Protestant,  who  are  in  immediate  con- 
tact with  the  special  problems  existent  in  the  republics. 
Scarcely  less  keen — despite  much  indifference  to  religious 
matters  on  the  part  of  the  educated  classes — has  been  the 
interest  evinced  by  eminent  patriots,  statesmen  and 
scholars,  especially  in  South  America,  who,  while  with- 
out a positive  religious  message  themselves,  are  never- 
theless concerned  as  to  the  content  and  quality  of  the 
inner  life  of  their  people,  and  as  to  the  religious  goal  to 
which  the  masses  are  tending. 

The  Latin-American  countries  have  undergone  vast, 
and  in  most  cases  violent,  political  changes.  During  the 
first  half  of  the  nineteenth  century  all  the  Spanish  colo- 
nies of  the  mainland  from  Mexico  to  the  Argentine  trans- 
formed themselves  through  conviction  and  insurrection 
into  independent  democracies.  The  close  of  the  century 
saw  Cuba  and  Porto  Rico,  the  last  of  Spain’s  Antillean 
dominions,  pass  from  under  European  control.  Likewise 
Brazil,  gigantic  offspring  of  Portugal,  after  passing 
through  the  successive  stages  of  tributary  dependency, 
autonomous  kingdom  and  constitutional  empire,  became 
in  1889,  a free  democracy  of  federated  states — the  latest 
and  largest  of  the  southern  republics.  _ It  were  strange 
indeed  if  the  new  experience  of  political  freedom  and 


8 


national  independence,  which  has  progressed  despite 
many  unforeseen  vicissitudes,  should  not  result  in  deep 
stirrings  of  the  religious  life  and  in  new  problems  for  the 
Churches.  The  wrench  from  long-established  relations 
and  the  social  readjustments  involved  in  the  prosecution 
of  national  programs  inherently  so  subversive  of  tradi- 
tion, so  radically  reconstructive,  have  had  in  Latin  Amer- 
ica the  usual  reaction  in  the  sphere  of  faith  and  morals. 
The  problem  of  the  realization  of  a religious  life  in 
terms  comportable  with  true  democracy  has  been  the 
most  difficult  with  which  the  new  republics  have  had  to 
deal.  And  it  is  the  crux  of  Latin-American  life  to-day. 

Education,  too,  through  modern  literature  and  in  sec- 
ular school  systems  under  state  control,  aiming  to  em- 
brace the  full  curriculum  of  modern  knowledge,  has,  in 
countries  like  Mexico,  Chile,  the  Argentine,  Uruguay  and 
Brazil,  and  to  a lesser  extent  in  other  countries,  cut  mul- 
titudes loose  from  their  former  intellectual  moorings  and 
created  the  necessity  of  a modern  restatement  of  spiritual 
verities.  Thousands  of  Latin  America’s  brightest  young 
men,  who,  in  the  best  foreign  universities  have  pursued 
modern  thought  to  its  highest  ranges,  challenge  the 
Church  for  a faith  which,  compatible  with  science  and 
with  reason,  can  meet  the  demands  of  the  modern  mind. 

Racial  commingling,  increasing  foreign  contact  chiefly 
through  immigration  on  the  Atlantic  seaboard  and,  above 
all,  the  remarkable  economic  development  which  has 
characterized  the  more  prosperous  regions,  have  given 
rise  to  new  social  relations  with  their  attendant  problems, 
and  to  new  attitudes  toward  religion,  which  constitute  a 
severe  test  of  the  resources  of  the  Church.  The  religious 
question  not  only  confronts  the  Latin-American  peoples 
to-day,  emerging  as  a vital  issue  from  the  experiences  of 
the  past;  it  is  discerned  also  as  an  all-important  element 
in  the  future  national  prosperity.  As  religion  is  the  soul 
of  history,  the  character  of  the  coming  development  of 
Latin  civilization  depends  in  supreme  degree  upon  the 
quality  of  its  moral  and  spiritual  life.  Only  upon  a 
sound  religious  basis  can  the  Latin  character  and  the 
Latin  culture  rise  to  their  full  possibilities  and  fulfil 
their  potential  mission  in  the  western  hemisphere. 

At  the  present  time  when  South  America  stands  on 


Her  new  education 
will  compel  the 
restatement  of  faith 


The  new  economic 
situation  requires  a 
new  moral  and 
spiritual  emphasis 


9 


The  present 
moment  strategic 


tiptoe,  facing  a new  industrial  era  and  preparing  to  ex- 
pand in  vast  commercial  enterprises ; when  all  the  repub- 
lics are  responding  to  the  enlarging  impulses  of  Pan- 
Americanism  ; when  Mexico  is  struggling  through  revo- 
lution to  a larger  and  purer  freedom ; when  Central 
America  and  the  Antilles  are  feeling  the  thrill  of  a live- 
lier destiny  by  the  opening  of  the  Panama  Canal ; when 
that  great  avenue  of  the  seas,  which,  while  it  cuts  the 
narrow  bond  that  joined  the  two  continents,  thereby 
unites  them  by  the  more  enduring  ties  of  mutual  ex* 
change  in  commodities  and  ideals,  of  international  sym- 
pathy and  friendship,  of  common  purpose  and  of  the 
common  mission  of  Christian  democracy — at  such  a time 
no  question  could  be  more  important  than  this : In  order 
that  the  Churches  may  adjust  themselves  to  the  new  day 
and  be  an  uplifting  and  guiding  force  in  spiritual  things, 
what  shall  be  the  message  and  the  method  of  their  min- 
istry ? 


lO 


CHAPTER  II 


RELEVANT  FACTS  IN  LATIN-AMERICAN 
CIVILIZATION 

The  notes  of  the  religious  message  most  needed  in 
Latin  America  to-day  and  the  forms  of  service  by  which 
the  Churches  can  most  helpfully  contribute  to  the  welfare 
of  the  Latin-American  peoples,  can  be  determined  only 
by  accurate  and  sympathetic  appreciation  of  the  special 
conditions  by  which  the  Christian  forces  in  the  countries 
south  of  the  United  States  are  confronted.  And  the  best 
way  to  understand  these  conditions  is  through  inquiry 
into  the  historical  factors  which  lie  behind  them.  Noth- 
ing could  be  more  gratuitous  and  futile  than  the  attempt 
of  the  Panama  Congress  to  suggest  a religious  program 
for  Latin  America,  unless  this  is  based  on  adequate 
knowledge  of  the  forces  and  experiences  which  have 
made  Latin-American  civilization  what  it  is. 

Of  the  antecedent  factors  upon  acquaintance  with 
which  must  largely  depend  an  understanding  of  the  pres- 
ent status,  brief  consideration  will  be  given  to  the  follow- 
ing: (i)  racial  complexity,  (2)  dominant  spirit,  (3)  re- 
ligious inheritance,  (4)  political  isolation,  (5)  democratic 
idealism. 

RACIAL  COMPLEXITY 

In  the  twenty  countries  comprising  the  Latin-American 
world  we  do  not  find  a homogeneous  population,  but  a 
composite  stock  embracing  various  strains  in  differing 
combinations.  The  three  main  constituents  are  Iberian, 
Indian  and  African.  The  racial  basis  is  for  the 
most  part  not  Spanish  or  Portuguese,  but  In- 


The  religious  message 
which  Latin  America 
needs  must  be  based 
upon  an  adequate 
historical  survey 


Five  factors 
antecedent  to  the 
existing  situation 


Population  of  Latin 
America  not 
homogeneous  but 
composite 


II 


The  persistent  Iberian 
element  itself 
an  amalgam 


Latin-American 
individuality  a 
mingling  of  Iberian 
and  Indian  stocks 


dian.  The  Iberian  colonists  themselves  were  of 
widely  divergent  extraction,  being  descendants  of 
the  invaders  who,  in  successive  centuries  from  three 
continents,  swarmed  into  the  Spanish  Peninsula. 
A student  of  Spanish  history  says  of  them:  “On 
the  great  elevated  table-land  which  occupies  the  center 
of  Spain  the  original  Iberian  inhabitants  were  conquered 
by  invading  Celts  with  whom  they  were  amalgamated. 
They  were  touched  commercially  by  the  Phoenicians  and 
derived  some  religious  ideas  from  the  Greek  colonies. 
They  were  for  a period  under  the  political  influence  of 
Carthage,  yet  remained  distinctively  Iberian.  Then  came 
the  Roman  invasion,  strenuously  opposed,  persistently 
pushed,  until  at  last  Rome  made  her  power  and  influ- 
ence universally  felt.  These  Latins  in  turn  amalgamated 
with  the  Iberians.  Between  these  races  was  a true  com- 
munity of  genius  and  spirit.  Rome  introduced  Chris- 
tianity to  the  Peninsula  and  exercised  a powerful  influ- 
ence there,  yet  the  resultant  culture  was  distinctively  Ibe- 
rian. On  the  breaking  up  of  the  Roman  Empire  the 
Visigoths  swept  down  upon  Spain  and  overran  the  land 
from  the  Pyrenees  to  the  pillars  of  Hercules.  But  the 
Gothic  domination  of  three  centuries  modifled  neither  the 
polity  nor  the  race  characteristics  of  the  Latin-Celt  Ibe- 
rians. They  ever  remained  foreigners  to  the  people 
among  whom  they  lived  as  the  dominant  race.  The  later 
invasion  of  the  Moors,  fanatics  of  another  faith,  and  the 
long  crusade  to  expel  them,  merely  served  further  to 
amalgamate,  deepen  and  intensify  the  racial  spirit  pre- 
viously established.  This  persistent  • people  became  the 
controlling  factor  in  framing  Latin-American  civiliza- 
tion.” 

The  present  differences  in  inward  temperament,  phys- 
ical appearance  and  general  character,  which  distinguish 
the  inhabitants  of  Latin-American  countries,  are  in  large 
measure  explained  by  the  early  mingling  of  Basques  with 
Araucanians,  of  Andalusians  with  Quechuas,  of  Portu- 
guese with  Guaranis,  of  Castilians,  Galicians  and  Cata- 
lonians with  Chibchas,  Aztecs,  Arawaks  and  Caribs.  In 
Brazil  and  the  Caribbean  islands  African  blood,  inherited 
from  the  days  of  slavery,  has  darkened  to  various  hues 
the  mestizo  peoples.  About  one-eighth  of  Brazil’s 


12 


24,000,000  are  pure  negroes.  But  on  the  whole,  it  is  the 
Indian  that  everywhere  prevails.  Sehor  Calderon  classes 
Mexico,  Peru,  Ecuador,  Paraguay  and  Bolivia  as  Indian 
nations ; while  he  speaks  of  the  general  population  as  a 
“babel  of  races,  so  mixed  that  it  is  impossible  to  discover 
the  definite  outlines  of  the  future  type”  and  useless  to 
look  for  racial  unity.  In  Argentine,  Uruguay  and  Chile, 
the  Spanish  racial  contribution  is  the  more  prominent. 

An  unfortunate  element  in  this  racial  admixture  is  the 
fact  that  the  Europeans  who  first  gave  direction  to  the 
new  blood  fusion  were,  for  the  most  part,  the  adven- 
turers, freebooters,  soldiers, — unprincipled,  lawless,  con- 
temptuous of  moral  restraint,  desirous  only  of  gold — 
who  largely  composed  the  colonial  armies  of  Portugal 
and  Spain.  It  was  only  when  the  conquest  was  well 
forwarded,  and  the  colonial  foundations  laid,  that  'the 
stream  of  higher  Castilian  culture  came  in  sufficient  vol- 
ume to  offset  incipient  moral  chaos,  but  too  late  withal 
to  prevent  an  inheritance  which  hung  as  a dead  weight 
upon  the  colonies. 

The  national  complexity  of  the  Latin  Americans,  ex- 
plained by  their  historic  origins  and  heritage,  is  reflected 
in  moral  standards  and  social  ideals  which  are  quite  dif- 
ferent from  those  of  Europe  as  well  as  of  most  of  North 
America.  Account  must  be  taken  of  this  in  all  attempts 
at  religious  approach.  We  have  here  a number  of  racial 
constituents,  each  bearing  its  own  tradition,  and  all  com- 
bining to  produce  a highly  composite  and  subtle  char- 
acter, whose  mental  quality  must  be  carefully  analyzed 
and  whose  motives  must  be  clearly  grasped,  if  the  gospel 
is  to  be  brought  intelligently  to  bear  upon  their  peculiar 
needs. 

THE  DOMINANT  LATIN  SPIRIT 

As  the  Anglo-Saxon  has  established  the  dominant  and 
assimilating  tradition  among  the  many  mingled  peoples 
of  the  United  States,  so  the  Iberian  strain  is  uppermost 
in  Latin  America,  transforming  Spaniards,  Portuguese, 
creoles,  mestizos,  Africans  and  Indians,  and  the  more 
recent  influx  of  Germans,  English,  Italians  and  even 
Slavs,  into  a people  which,  with  all  its  local  diversity 
and  even  its  provincial  antagonisms,  is  predominantly 


The  earliest  Spanish 
stock 


The  Latin  American 
of  to-day  racially 
distinctive 


Latin  Americans 
predominantly 
a Latin  people 


13 


With  a spirit 
distinctively  their 
own,  to  be 
sympathetically 
interpreted 


Before  the  Conquest 
there  existed  some 
promising  aboriginal 
cults 


Latin.  Even  in  the  countries  in  which  the  Indian  or  mes- 
tizo population  is  almost  solid,  the  ruling  class  has 
adopted  and  imposed  the  language,  customs  and  the  soul 
of  Latin  culture.  This  Hispanic  tradition  has  been  im- 
mensely accentuated  and  supplemented  by  persistent  in- 
fluences from  France  and  Italy.  Law,  religion  and  the 
sense  of  the  artistic  have  emanated  through  Spain  and 
Italy ; rationalism,  socialism,  poetic  sentiment  and  repub- 
licanism have  come  largely  from  France.  It  is  only  re- 
cently that  this  Latin  spirit  has  sought  to  accommodate 
itself  to  the  utilitarian  realities  of  Anglo-Saxon,  Teutonic, 
or  North  American  commerce.  Special  attention  must 
be  called  to  the  potent  influence  exercised  upon  the  new 
democracies  by  France,  of  whose  contribution  South 
American  litterateurs  make  the  most  glowing  acknowl- 
edgment. What  is  important  is  this:  France  has  helped 
to  create  “a  new  variety  of  the  Latin  spirit,”  which  is 
neither  Spanish  nor  French,  but  distinctly  Latin-Amer- 
ican.  This  is  the  mystic  bond  which  unites  insular  and 
continental  lands  from  the  Caribbean  to  the  Antarctic. 
It  is  that  subtle  element  in  the  Southern  civilization  which 
the  practical  Anglo-Saxon,  or  North  American,  too  often 
fails  to  appreciate.  No  greater  problem  confronts  the 
missionary  enterprise  in  the  lands  under  review,  in  so  far 
as  its  agents  are  Anglo-Saxons,  than  that  of  sympathetic 
penetration  into  the  Latin-American  spirit.  It  is  that 
spirit  which  must  largely  condition  the  form  of  the  Chris- 
tian message,  even  as  Paul  spoke  the  language  of  Greek 
philosophy  when  he  preached  the  gospel  on  the  Athenian 
Areopagus.  It  is  the  Latin-American  spirit  only  which 
can  point  the  way  to  a knowledge  of  Latin-American 
character,  Latin-American  culture,  and  Latin-American 
conscience.  To  these  the  Christian  gospel  must  be  in- 
telligently proclaimed. 

THE  RELIGIOUS  INHERITANCE 

I.  Primitive  Indian  Faiths. 

First  of  all,  we  must  ask  what  contribution,  if  any,  the 
indigenous  Indian  faiths  have  made  to  Latin  America’s 
religious  life.  The  aborigines,  already  referred  to  as 
constituting  the  racial  base,  were  possesssed  of  cults — 


14 


ranging  from  the  crude  barbarian  animism  of  the  Ama- 
zonian and  La  Plata  tribes  to  the  more  elaborate  poly- 
theisms of  the  great  confederacies  like  the  Incas  of  Peru, 
the  Muiscas  or  Chibchas  of  Colombia,  the  Mayas 
of  Central  America  and  the  Aztecs  of  Mexico.  Before 
the  conquest  the  higher  cultus  of  the  Nahuan 
and  Incan  systems  had,  together  with  much  that 
was  primitive  and  horrible  in  their  worship,  at- 
tained to  exalted  ethical  conceptions  symbolized  in  gor- 
geous ritual  and  embodied  in  systematic  teaching.  They 
had  also  a type  of  political  organization,  industrial  de- 
velopment and  social  practices  which  gave  them  a fair 
place  among  the  higher  non-Christian  civilizations,  and 
which  had  great  promise  of  further  development.  But 
all  this  fell  to  ruins  under  the  conquistadores.  The  policy 
of  the  Spaniards  was  “to  crush  out  the  civilization  of  a 
conquered  foe,  never  to  absorb  its  useful  features.  No 
consideration  was  extended  to  established  customs  in  re- 
gions where  Spanish  arms  proved  victorious,  no  effort 
made  to  adapt  existing  forms  to  a higher  standard  of 
moral  and  material  progress.”  * Even  such  gleams  of 
light  as  flashed  out  in  the  ethicized  and  spiritualized  sun- 
worship  of  the  Incas,  illumining  the  way  to  a pure  mono- 
theism centered  about  Pachacamac,  the  Quichuan  “cre- 
ator of  the  world,”  were  quite  extinguished  in  the  in- 
discriminate destruction  visited  by  Pizarro  on  the  Peru- 
vian slopes.  While  these  higher  tendencies  of  the  native 
religions,  which  might  have  been  converted  into  moral  and 
spiritual  capital,  were  broken  down,  the  more  vulgar 
superstitions  and  practices  of  paganism  survived,  being 
perpetuated  to  this  day  by  a large  proportion  of  the 
17,000,000  Indians  scattered  from  Mexico  to  Tierra  del 
Fuego ; and  not  only  so,  but  in  many  regions  were  in- 
corporated into  the  established  religion  which  bears  the 
name  of  Christ.  For  example,  at  Guadalupe,  the  most 
holy  shrine  in  Mexico,  and  at  Copacabana,  on  Lake  Titi- 
caca, the  Indians  still  dance  before  the  church,  perform 
other  religious  rites  exactly  as  their  pre-Christian  ances- 
tors did,  and  the  Church  permits  these  practices  as  part 
of  their  religious  pilgrimages. 


‘C.  E.  Akers,  "A  History  of  South  America,”  3. 


Extinguished  by  the 
Spanish  conquerors 


The  primitive  under- 
lying paganism  has 
survived 


15 


Absorbed  in  some 
cases  into  Roman 
Catholic  usages 


The  earliest  missions 
in  Latin  America 
were  royal  enterprises 


Their  control  was 
yielded  by  the  pope 
to  the  king  of  Spain 


The  Mexicans  easily  confounded  Aztec  mythology 
with  Roman  dogma.  Humboldt  reported,  “the  Holy 
Ghost  is  the  sacred  eagle  of  the  Aztecs.”  The  worship 
of  the  local  pagan  deities  was  transferred  to  the  Roman 
saints.  All  that  can  be  truthfully  said  is  that  the  higher 
native  religions  were  swept  away,  that  the  popular  beliefs 
and  practices  of  the  lower  cults — blind  gropings,  super- 
stitious fears,  and  crude  ritual — have  become  mixed  with 
the  prevailing  religion  of  to-day,  and  that  at  least  5,000,- 
000  Indians,  in  remote  and  unexplored  regions,  are  still 
as  intact  in  their  paganism  as  they  were  before  the  eyes 
of  the  Christian  had  looked  upon  the  American  shore. 

2.  The  Roman  Catholic  Church. 

A just  and  adequate  estimate  of  the  greatest  factor 
in  Latin  America’s  religious  inheritance — ^the  Roman 
Catholic  Church — would  involve  accurate  knowledge  and 
careful  interpretation  of  (i)  the  manner  of  the  Church’s 
introduction  into  the  colonies,  (2)  its  missionary  leader- 
ship, (3)  the  spirit  and  methods  of  its  development,  (4) 
its  present  status  and  the  net  results  of  its  propaganda. 

Only  the  more  salient  and  suggestive  facts  can  be  pre- 
sented in  the  brief  statement  which  is  here  outlined. 

(i)  The  Church’s  Introduction.  The  occupation  by 
Roman  Catholic  Christianity  of  the  new  world  was  nei- 
ther inaugurated  nor  controlled  by  the  Roman  See.  In 
this  respect  it  differed  radically  from  the  earlier  mediaeval 
missions  to  central  and  northern  Europe,  initiated  and 
directly  administered  by  Gregory  the  Great  and  his  suc- 
cessors, and  dependent  for  their  achievements  upon  the 
peaceable  evangelism  and  statesmanship  of  apostolic 
leaders  like  Augustine  of  Canterbury,  Willibrord  of  Frisia 
and  Boniface  of  Germany.  The  early  American  mis- 
sions, on  the  contrary,  were  primarily  an  enterprise  of 
the  Spanish  Crown,  integrally  bound  up  with  the  romance 
of  discovery,  the  lust  of  wealth,  the  carnage  of  conquest 
and  the  violent  subjugation  of  resisting  peoples. 

It  was  not  through  lack  of  missionary  zeal,  but  through 
dearth  of  resources  and  because  of  the  dependent  rela- 
tion of  the  Roman  See  upon  the  most  powerful  of  Cath- 
olic states  that  the  reigning  pontiff  could  neither  inde- 
pendently provide  for  nor  direct,  unhampered  by  civil 

16 


and  military  restrictions,  the  Church’s  entrance  into  the 
vast  new  fields  announced  by  the  discoverers.  He  “could 
do  nothing  by  himself  in  this  immense  territory;  he  had 
not  the  means  of  establishing  in  it  the  institutions  neces- 
sary for  the  propagation  of  religion.”*  So  unified,  how- 
ever, were  the  interests  of  church  and  state  in  the  Span- 
ish Constitution  that  there  was  little  consciousness  of  re- 
strictions on  either  side.  The  exigencies  of  colonial  ex- 
pansion were  easily  reconciled  with  missionary  propa- 
ganda, and  missionary  methods  easily  accommodated  to 
government  procedure.  The  year  following  Columbus’ 
first  discovery  the  bull  of  Pope  Alexander  VI  assigned 
the  new  territories  to  the  sovereigns  of  Castile  and  Leon, 
“with  free,  full  and  absolute  power,  authority  and  juris- 
diction.” This  donation  was  modified  and  enlarged  in 
1494  by  the  tteaty  of  Tordesillas,  whereby  the  whole  new 
world  was  divided  between  Portugal  and  Spain,  the  par- 
tition being  ecclesiastically  ratified  by  Pope  Julius  II  in 
1506.  The  bull  of  Julius  conceded  that  in  the  regions 
already  discovered,  or  which  yet  might  be  discovered, 
the  establishment  of  churches,  monasteries  or  other  re- 
ligious institutions,  as  well  as  all  ecclesiastical  appoint- 
ments present  or  future,  should  be  subject  to  the  consent 
of  the  king.* 

The  Spanish  government  became  virtually  the  Church’s 
missionary  society,  whose  sweeping  commission,  by  the 
approval  and  authority  of  Rome,  embraced  all  the  func- 
tions of  discovery,  conquest,  colonization,  civil  suze- 
rainty and  evangelization.  Apart  from  the  clear  recog- 
nition of  this  fact  the  early  missions  cannot  be  under- 
stood— they  were  controlled  by  the  king.  In  the  new 
America  he  was  dominant  as  “the  supreme  patron  of  the 
Church,”  vested  by  the  pope  himself  with  power  even  to 
veto  papal  action.  The  various  orders  of  regular  and 
secular  clergy  authorized  to  undertake  religious  service 


‘Velez  Sarsfield,  Dalmacio,  “Relaciones  del  Estado  con  la 
Iglesia  en  la  antigua  America  Espanola,”  18;  quoted  by 
Bernard  Moses,  “The  Spanish  Dependencies  in  South 
America,”  vol.  ii,  206. 

’ Peschel,  “Die  Theilung  der  Erde  unter  Papst  Alexander 
VI  and  Julius  II,”  13-15;  Coleccion  de  documentos  ineditos 
de  America  y Oceania,  vol.  xvi,  356;  vol.  xxxiv,  25-9. 


This  . royal  control 
affected  the  whole 
course  of  the 
missionary  enterprise 


17 


Much  heroism,  zeal 
and  devotion  were 
manifested 


Along  with 
inconsistent  violence 
and  bloodshed 


in  the  colonies  at  once  found  their  operations  limited  by 
civil  regulations.  Laws  were  rapidly  promulgated, 
touching  all  relations  between  the  clergy  and  the  Indian 
inhabitants.  Viceroys,  governors  and  bishops,  as  well  as 
regular  missionaries,  were  commanded  by  royal  decree  to 
convert  the  Indians,  to  root  out  their  idolatry  and  their 
vices,  to  destroy  or  carry  away  their  idols,  and  to  pre- 
vent, if  need  be  by  severe  penalties,  all  practice  of  their 
pagan  cults.  As  organization  proceeded,  “every  eccle- 
siastical office  in  America  was  filled  by  the  king’s  nomi- 
nation,” no  building  could  be  erected  without  the  royal 
license,  and  even  the  provincial  assemblies  must  be  pre- 
sided over  by  a viceroy 

Notwithstanding  the  secular  limitations  and  coercion 
under  which  the  early  missionaries  labored  and  the  com- 
promising connection  between  Christian  Enterprise  and 
unchristian  conquest,  it  cannot  be  doubted  that  a far- 
reaching  missionary  interest,  some  of  it  ardently  heroic 
and  spiritually  genuine,  lay  behind  the  attempt  to  expand 
the  confines  of  the  Christian  world.  The  whole  era  of 
discovery  and  early  settlement  is  shot  through  with  a 
chivalric  passion  to  win  new  lands  and  peoples  for  Christ 
and  the  king.  The  Portuguese,  who  were  the  first  to 
reach  what  is  now  Brazil,  called  it  “Santa  Cruz” — the 
land  of  the  “Holy  Cross.”  Columbus  named  “San  Sal- 
vador”— the  land  of  the  “Holy  Saviour” — the  first  island 
touched  by  his  prows.  From  the  first  expeditions  of 
Cortes  and  Pizzaro  monks  or  priests  were  required  to 
sail  in  every  Spanish  ship  bound  for  discovery  or  war. 
Cortes  was  solemnly  enjoined  to  Christianize  the  Mexi- 
cans. On  his  standard  emblazoned  with  a red  cross  was 
the  motto,  “Friends,  let  us  follow  the  cross,  and  under 
this  sign,  if  we  have  faith,  we  shall  conquer,”  And  with 
fierce  but  zealous  inconsistency,  accompanied  by  religious 
teachers,  he  put  a nation  to  the  sword.  So,  in  general, 
“the  Spanish  captains  fought  to  convert  the  oversea  in- 
fidels”" with  the  same  crusading  zeal  with  which  they 
had  driven  the  Moors  from  Spain.  The  early  chroni- 

’ “Leyes  de  Indias,”  lib  1,  tit.  1;  13,  ley,  2;  tit.  14;  leyes  60, 
61,  tit.  6,  ley  1;  tit.  3,  ley  1. 

’ F.  Garcia  Calderon,  “Latin  America:  Its  Rise  and  Pro- 
gress,” 52. 

i8 


clers  naively  admit  the  place  of  the  Church  in  the  bloody 
campaigns,  attributing  alike  the  successes  of  military  vio- 
lence, of  industrial  enslavement  and  of  priestly  en- 
deavor, to  the  blessing  of  God.  Thus  Gomara,  clerical 
historian  of  Cortes,  says : “Hovr  much  territory  have  our 
Spaniards  discovered,  explored  and  converted  in  sixty 
years  of  conquest ! Never  did  any  king  or  people  explore 
and  subject  as  much  in  so  short  a time  as  did  ours.  Nor 
has  any  people  accomplished  or  merited  such  success  as 
our  country,  in  arms  and  navigation  as  well  as  in  the 
preaching  of  the  holy  gospel  and  the  conversion  of  idol- 
aters. Wherefore,  Spaniards  are  most  worthy  of  praise 
in  all  parts  of  the  world.  Blessed  be  God  who  gave  them 
such  grace  and  powers.”  ‘ 

The  manner  of  the  Church’s  introduction  into  the  col- 
onies and  the  conduct  of  the  early  missions  is  sufficiently 
explained  by  the  milieu  in  which  the  movement  occurred. 
It  was  not  without  a sincere  Christian  motive,  exer- 
cised through  holy  lives  and  devoted  service.  Never- 
theless, the  movement,  as  a whole,  was  a lamentable  mis- 
representation of  true  Christianity.  Latin  America  was  not 
favored  by  a spontaneous,  untrammeled  evangelism,  re- 
lying solely  upon  the  appeal  and  power  of  the  gospel 
message — a fact  which  is  reacting  in  a very  real  way  at 
the  present  time.  In  recent  years  Latin-American 
scholars  have  gone  more  deeply  than  any  others  into  the 
contemporary  chronicles  of  the  colonial  propaganda.  In 
a succession  of  works  which  has  been  pouring  from 
the  press  they  have  been  giving  expression  to  the  revul- 
sion against  Christianity  and  the  Roman  Church  which 
has  laid  hold  of  the  minds  of  multitudes  as  they  reflect 
on  the  methods  employed.  Unfortunately,  the  good  that 
was  accomplished  and  the  truth  dispensed  as  precious 
solace  to  human  hearts  in  those  stormy  times  has  largely 
been  lost  from  view. 

(2)  Missionary  Leadership.  The  distinctively  mis- 
sionary propaganda  which  stands  out  as  a special  phase 
of  the  conquest  as  conceived  and  jointly  authorized  by 
church  and  state,  was  carried  on  principally  by  the  mon- 


*Francisco  Lopez  de  Gomara,  “Historia  General  de  las 
Indias,”  337. 


Cn  the  whole  the 
missionary  movement 
sadly  misrepresented 
Christianity 


The  Roman  Catholic 
missionaries  were 
from  the  monastic 
orders 


19 


First,  the 
Franciscans 


Then  the 
Dominicans 


astic  orders,  especially  the  Dominicans,  the  Franciscans 
and  the  Jesuits.  Despite  their  subordination  to  the  civil 
power  and  the  impeding  association  of  their  activities 
with  the  state’s  brutal  methods  of  colonial  subjugation, 
the  very  nature  of  their  task  tended  to  develop  strong 
personalities.  The  exactions  of-  their  primitive  and  bar- 
baric environment  bred  in  them  a power  of  initiative,  an 
aggressive  resourcefulness,  which,  inspired  by  religious 
fervor,  not  only  rose  to  great  and  original  heroisms  of 
service,  but  did  not  hesitate  at  conflict  with  secular  inter- 
ests. In  the  sacrificial  ardor  and  versatile  labor  with 
which  they  set  themselves  to  win  the  pagan  people  to 
civilization  and  to  the  Church,  the  first  two  generations 
of  these  missionaries  have  never  been  surpassed.  “There 
was  no  tropical  wilderness  too  intricate  or  far-stretching 
for  them  to  traverse,  no  water  too  wide  for  them  to 
cross,  no  rock  or  cave  too  dangerous  for  them  to  climb 
or  enter,  no  Indian  tribe  too  dull  or  refractory  for  them 
to  teach.”  Into  their  religious  conquest  they  put  the 
romantic  daring,  the  chivalrous  devotion,  the  crusading 
enthusiasm  of  the  times. 

The  Franciscans  were  the  first  to  follow  the  discovery, 
a band  of  twelve  under  Bernardo  Boil,  reaching  His- 
paniola (Haiti)  as  early  as  1493,  where  one  of  them, 
Marchena,  the  friend  of  Columbus,  built  the  first  church 
in  the  New  World.  Three  Flemish  brothers,  led  by 
Pedro  de  Gante,  preceded  in  Mexico  the  great  Franciscan, 
Valencia,  who  with  his  apostolic  retinue,  landing  at  Vera 
Cruz,  toiled  barefoot  to  the  capital,  where  he  was  offi- 
cially recognized  by  Cortes  in  1524.  The  Dominicans 
were  established  in  Santo  Domingo  as  early  as  ifiio. 
Two  of  their  leaders,  Pedro  de  Cordoba  and  Juan  Garces, 
were  the  pioneers  in  what  is  now  Venezuela.  There  they 
built  the  first  monastery  and  suffered  martyrdom  through 
Indian  vengeance  stirred  up  by  the  violent  treachery  of 
Spanish  pearl-fishers.*  Both  Dominicans  and  Franciscans, 
among  them  eminent  evangelists,  teachers,  humanitarians, 
scholars,  were  soon  found  in  large  numbers  in  most  of 
the  Antillean  islands,  in  Mexico,  and  in  the  continental 
settlements  of  the  Caribbean  and  Pacific  coasts. 


‘Humbert,  "Les  Origines  Venezueliennes.” 


20 


But  the  ablest  and  most  enterprising  missionaries  of 
early  Latin  America  were  Jesuits.  Fired  with  the  fervor 
of  the  counter-reformation,  fresh  with  the  vigor  of  youth, 
instinct  with  the  passion  of  Loyola  and  Xavier,  this  order 
poured  itself  into  the  colonies  in  the  first  flush  of  its 
missionary  zeal.  Fifteen  years  after  their  foundation  in 
1534,  six  of  their  number  under  Nobrega  landed  in  Brazil 
with  de  Souza,  the  first  governor  of  that  great  colonial 
wilderness.  Soon  another  band  reached  what  is  now  Bo- 
livia, and  in  1577  they  had  established  an  important  mis- 
sion on  Lake  Titicaca,  in  the  shadow  of  the  Inca  ruins. 
Within  a century  they  were  found  in  almost  every  region 
of  the  southern  continent.  They  were  powerful  in  north- 
ern Mexico,  but  their  chief  triumphs  were  in  Brazil  and 
Paraguay.  In  the  latter  country,  between  1610  and  1767, 
they  had  gathered  in  their  pueblos  or  reductions  a com- 
munity estimated  at  100,000  Indians,  whom  they  taught 
the  elementary  arts  of  civilization  and  the  forms  and 
tenets  of  the  Roman  faith.  Such  gigantic  labors  re- 
quired and  developed  men  of  herculean  mold,  of  great 
tenacity  of  purpose,  of  many-sided  ability,  of  sustaining 
faith  and  sublime  consecration.  The  early  leaders  in- 
clude some  of  the  most  illustrious  names  and  the  choicest 
spirits  in  all  the  annals  of  missions.  Appreciation  of 
the  purest  and  strongest  Christian  influences  at  work  in 
the  early  period  can  best  be  derived  from  acquaintance 
with  the  life  and  labors  of  extraordinary  men,  like  No- 
brega, Vieira  and  Anchieta  of  Brazil,  Catadina  and  Ma- 
zeta  of  Paraguay,  Baraze  of  Peru,  Pedro  Claver  of  Ven- 
ezuela, and  Las  Casas  “protector  of  the  Indians”  from 
Santo  Domingo  to  Chile.  In  such  leaders  Latin  missions 
are  seen  at  their  best. 

(3)  Spirit  and  Method.  While  we  are  seeking  just  ap- 
preciation and  sane  admiration  of  the  personnel  of  the 
missionary  leadership,  we  must  forbear  to  wrest  it  from 
its  true  historical  setting.  Even  the  Jesuit  Nobrega  and 
the  Dominican  Las  Casas  must  be  studied  in  the  light 
of  Spanish  Catholicism,  just  as  John  Hunt  and  David 
Livingstone  require  the  background  of  the  Methodist  Re- 
vival of  England  and  the  Presbyterianism  of  Scotland. 
The  noblest  apostles  to  Latin  America  would  be  incom- 
prehensible apart  from  clear  insight  into  the  general 
spirit  and  method  of  the  Church’s  establishment  and  de- 


Lastly,  but  with 
greatest  success, 
the  Jesuits 


Many  of  them 
were  remarkable 
missionaries 


Three  facts  assist 
in  appraising  the 
work  of  these  early 
missionaries 


21 


(1)  Religious  propa- 
gation accompanied 
military  spoliation 


(2)  The  Christianity 
preached  was  the 
fanatical  orthodoxy 
of  the  fifteenth 
century 


velopment  in  the  colonies.  In  this  connection  three  out- 
standing facts  command  additional  attention. 

First,  in  the  militant,  ecclesiastical  autocracy  of  the 
Iberian  monarchs  from  Ferdinand  to  Philip  III,  the  tasks 
of  peninsular  government,  of  colonial  expansion,  and  of 
the  defense  and  propagation  of  the  established  religion 
at  home  and  abroad,  were  inseparably  related.^  This 
largely  accounts  for  the  sharp  contradictions  and  dis- 
tressing incongruities  exhibited  in  Spain’s  acquire- 
ment of  her  dependencies,  especially  when  the  record  is 
read  as  missionary  history,  according  to  the  intents  and 
decrees  of  pope  and  king.  Ardent  evangelism,  patient  in- 
struction, self-denying  labor,  humanitarian  ministry  and 
martyrdom,  alternate  with,  and  often  accompany,  whole- 
sale slaughter  and  cruel  subjection  of  the  natives,  spolia- 
tion of  their  land,  extortion  of  their  toil  and  wealth.^  This 
situation  must  be  frankly  accepted  as  an  expression  of 
the  spirit  and  method  of  the  foremost  Roman  Catholic 
country  at  the  dawn  of  the  colonial  era. 

The  second  fact  is  this : the  type  of  Christianity  trans- 
mitted to  the  oversea  lands  was,  necessarily,  the  mediaeval 
orthodoxy  of  Spain.  As  North  America  received  the 
evangelical  standpoint  of  the  English  Reformation, 
South  America  received  the  hierarchical  Romanism  of 
the  fifteenth  and  sixteenth  centuries,  in  the  form  and 
temper  developed  in  its  principal  stronghold.  The  Cath- 
olicism which  converted  the  colonies  was,  in  its  essential 
genius  and  general  procedure,  inevitably  one  with  the 
spirit  of  Ferdinand  and  Isabella,  of  Jimenez  and  Tor- 
quemada,  of  Charles  I and  Philip  II,  of  the  Duke  of  Alva 
and  Pius  V,^  of  John  III,  Sebastian  and  Cardinal  Prince 
Henry.  Multitudes  in-  the  Peninsula  were  impris- 
oned, tortured  and  slain  for  heresy,  by  the  authority 
and  in  the  reign  of  the  very  queen  who  sped  Columbus 
oversea  with  prayer  and  gold,  and  expressed  such  solici- 
tude for  the  salvation  of  the  Indians.  The  whole  enter- 
prise of  the  early  occupation  of  America  was  contempo- 


‘ Cf.  Bernard  Moses,  “The  Spanish  Dependencies  in  South 
America,”  vol.  i,  xv  (Intro.). 

^ Cf.  C.  E.  Akers,  “A  History  of  South  America,”  9;  Cam- 
bridge Modern  History,  vol.  x,  279. 

“Prescott,  “History  of  the  Reign  of  Phillip  II,”  vol.  ii. 


22 


raneous  with  the  epoch  of  the  Spanish  Inquisition,  the  per- 
secution and  expulsion  of  the  Jews,  the  fierce  and  “holy” 
wars  against  the  Moriscos — all  of  which  were  included  in 
the  ecclesiastical  program.  The  fanaticism  of  the  nation 
was  kindled  and  arrayed  both  to  defend  and  to  extend 
the  faith.  “The  discovery  of  a new  world,  occupied  by  a 
non-Christian  people,  at  a time  when  the  heroic  efforts  to 
suppress  the  Moorish  infidel  had  been  crowned  with  suc- 
cess, appeared  to  the  Spaniards  as  evidence  that  they 
were  the  instruments  preferred  by  Providence  in  extend- 
ing the  kingdom  of  heaven  and  earth.’” 

In  the  third  place,  the  early  missionary  fervor  was  soon 
largely  absorbed  in  the  concomitant  tasks  of  church  or- 
ganization and  the  control  of  religious  opinion.  The 
reproduction  in  America  of  the  Spanish  hierarchy  and 
institutions  with  all  their  forms  and  functions  was  re- 
garded as  equally  important  with  the  far-going  evangel- 
istic propaganda.  Energy  that  might  have  been  used  to 
penetrate  unreached  districts  was  concentrated,  in  the 
established  centers,  on  the  preservation  of  traditional  be- 
lief. The  first  bishopric  established  in  Darien,  in  1514, 
rapidly  developed  into  a powerful,  well  organized  hier- 
archy in  all  the  colonies.  Great  archbishops  from  their 
grand  cathedrals  in  flourishing  cities  exercised  their 
vested  authority  over  large  areas.  The  secular  clergy 
devoted  themselves  to  Europeans,  creoles  and  such  of  the 
mestizos  and  aborigines  as  civilization  had  reached.  The 
orders  built  monasteries,  founded  universities  and  accu- 
mulated vast  wealth.  The  Dominicans  set  up  the  Inqui- 
sition in  Mexico,  Cartagena  and  Lima,  in  one  supreme 
and  sanguinary  attempt  to  reduce  a continent  to  intellec- 
tual and  spiritual  uniformity.  But  the  apostolic  fires 
burned  low  when  the  period  of  colonial  decadence  began. 

In  general  the  missionary  methods  reflect  the  ideals 
of  the  age.  After  the  manner  of  Charlemagne  and  Vladi- 
mir, the  conquerors  frequently  gave  the  Indians  the  op- 
tion of  war  or  submission  to  the  Roman  faith.”  When 
war  was  accepted  and  the  Indians  were  reduced,  they 


‘ Bernard  Moses,  “The  Spanish  Dependencies  in  South 
America,”  vol.  1,  xv-xvi  (Intro.). 

’ Herrera,  Documentos,  1,  lib.  vii,  cap.  14;  Acosta,  “Nueva 
Granada,”  23-5. 


(3)Their  religious 
fervor  was  soon 
absorbed  by 
ecclesiastical  tasks 


The  process  of  Chris- 
tianization was  often 
coercive  and 
wholesale 


23 


The  Jesuit  methods 
were  friendly  but 
ultra-paternalistic 


The  Latin-American 
republics  have 
gradually  recognized 
freedom  of  worship 


were  enslaved  and  baptized.  In  Mexico  there  were 
wholesale  conversions.  Gomara  estimates  the  num- 
ber baptized  following  Cortes’  conquest  as  between  six 
and  ten  millions,  and,  in  his  enthusiasm,  finally  adds : “In 
short,  they  [the  Spaniards]  conve:*i.ed  as  many  as  they 
conquered.’  There  were  noble  protests  against  this  coer- 
cive Christianization,  as  for  example  the  bull  of  Paul  III 
declaring  that  the  people  were  to  be  “called  to  the  faith 
of  Jesus  Christ  by  preaching  and  by  the  example  of  a 
good  and  holy  life’” ; and  the  lofty  plea  of  Las  Casas, 
“The  means  for  establishing  the  Faith  in  the  Indies  should 
be  the  same  as  those  by  which  Christ  introduced  his 
religion  into  world — mild,  peaceable  and  charitable.’” 
Words  like  these  were  a rebuke  of  the  general  policy. 

- The  methods  of  the  Jesuits  were  catechetical,  discipli- 
nary, industrial  and  ultra-paternal.  The  thousands  of 
Indians  under  their  instruction  in  Paraguay  for  a cen- 
tury and  a half  before  their  expulsion  in  1767  consti- 
tuted the  “Reductions.”  In  peaceful  villages  they  pro- 
vided the  natives  with  protection,  instruction,  cooperative 
labor  and  the  influence  of  Christian  leadership  of  high 
quality.  But  the  settlements,  here  as  elsewhere,  failed  to 
become  self-supporting  communities,  nor  did  they  pro- 
duce a native  agency  for  further  evangelization.  They 
fell  away  as  soon  as  the  missionaries  were  gone,  having 
made  little  or  no  permanent  contribution  to  the  Chris- 
tianity of  the  continent.’ 

(4)  Present  Status.  In  achieving  political  emancipa- 
tion the  colonies  at  first  protested  and  long  preserved 
their  loyalty  to  the  Roman  Church,  despite  the  fact  that 
that  Church  was  the  chief  instrument  of  Spain’s  repres- 
sive regime.  But  freedom  of  conscience  and  of  worship 
was  implicit  in  the  forces  that  made  for  democracy.  The 
makers  of  the  new  republics  soon  became  conscious  of 
the  incompatibility  between  a ruling  ecclesiasticism  and 
a free  government.  The  result  was  the  gradual  recog- 
nition of  the  principle  of  religious  liberty  and  toleration. 
That  principle  (as  pointed  out  by  Commission  I already). 


’ Francisco  Lopez  de  Gomara,  “History  de  Mexico,”  337. 

’ Quoted  by  Hubert  W.  Brown,  “Latin  America,”  70. 

® Quoted  by  Hirst,  “Argentina,”  158. 

’ Muratori,  “Missions  of  Paraguay,”  70,  126;  Humboldt, 
“Travels  in  the  Equatorial  Regions  of  America,”  vol.  1,  201. 


24 


although  not  universally  understood  and  observed  in 
Latin  America,  is  now  established  by  legal  enactments  in 
every  one  of  the  republics.  Yet,  notwithstanding  this  im- 
portant fact,  Roman  Catholicism  still  preserves,  in  vary- 
ing degree,  the  aspect  of  a state  religion.  In  most  of  the 
countries  the  Roman  Church  continues  to  enjoy  some  of 
the  prerogatives  and  exemptions  of  a state  institution. 
Almost  the  entile  population  of  Cuba,  Porto  Rico,  Mex- 
ico, Central  America  and  South  America  is  returned  by 
government  census  as  Roman  Catholic.  In  general,  the 
Roman  Church  regards  itself  as  adequately  occupying 
or  preempting  the  entire  Latin-American  world.  It  pro- 
fesses to  assume  and  to  discharge  full  religious  respon- 
sibility for  this  vast  region,  which  it  officially  views,  not 
as  a mission  field,  but  as  Christianized  territory,  so  that 
it  resents  and  opposes  any  attempt  on  the  part  of  other 
Churches  to  supplement  its  activities. 

This  attitude,  unfortunately,  does  not  fully  represent 
the  real  situation.  Abundant  evidence  establishes  the  fact 
that  the  vast  statistical  membership  of  the  census  re- 
ports is  largely  nominal  and  superficial.  That  there  are 
immense  and  growing  defections  from  the  Roman 
Church,  not  only  in  inward  conviction  and  sympathy,  but 
in  outward  allegiance  and  conformity,  is  patent  beyond 
contradiction  in  every  Latin-American  land.  Multitudes 
having  become  alienated  from  the  Roman  Church,  are 
contemptuous  or  antagonistic  toward  all  religion ; still 
vaster  multitudes  have  drifted  into  utter  indifference  re- 
garding the  teachings  of  Roman  Catholicism,  while  yield- 
ing prudential  compliance  with  its  forms  and  customs. 

Scientific  candor  based  on  indisputable  testimony  from 
both  Roman  Catholic  and  Protestant  sources  compels 
the  statement  that  in  the  Roman  Church  Latin  America 
has  inherited  an  institution  which,  though  still  influential, 
is  rapidly  declining  in  power.  With  notable  exceptions 
its  priesthood  is  discredited  by  the  thinking  classes.  Its 
moral  life  is  weak  and  its  spiritual  witness  faint.  At  the 
present  time  it  is  giving  the  people  neither  the  Bible, 
nor  the  gospel,  nor  the  intellectual  guidance,  nor  the 
moral  dynamic,  nor  the  social  uplift  which  they  need.  It 
is  weighted  with  mediaevalism  and  other  non-Christian 
accretions.  Its  propaganda  has  by  no  means  issued  in  a 
Christian  Latin  America.  Its  emphasis  is  on  dogma  and 


Yet  Roman 
Catholicism,  as  a 
quasi-state  religion 
resents  Evangelical 
activity 


Its  occupancy, 
however,  is  not 
adequate 


It  does  not  meet 
its  religious 
responsibilities 


25 


Its  latest 
critic 


Evangelical 
missionary  work 
relatively  recent 


ritual,  while  it  is  all  too  silent  on  the  ethical  demands  of 
Christian  character.  It  must  bear  the  responsibility  of 
what  Lord  Bryce  calls  Latin  America’s  “grave  misfor- 
tune’’— “absence  of  a religious  foundation  for  thought 
and  conduct.”  ‘ 

Summing  up  the  net  results  of  the  Roman  Catholic 
propaganda,  the  latest  authoritative  historian  of  Chris- 
tian missions  says:  “We  realize  and  we  thank  God  for 
the  good  work  which  the  Roman  Catholic  missions  have 
done  and  are  doing  in  mariy  parts  of  the  world,  but  our 
appreciation  of  this  cannot  blind  our  eyes  to  the  fact  that 
in  Central  and  South  America  the  missions  of  the  Roman 
Catholic  Church  have  proved  an  almost  complete 
failure.”  Of  South  America  he  adds : “After  three  cen- 
turies of  nominal  Christianity  any  conversion  of  its  peo- 
ples which  will  involve  the  practice  of  the  elementary 
teaching  of  Christianity  lies  still  in  the  seemingly  distant 
future.”* 

3.  The  Evangelical  Missions. 

Though  of  recent  origin  as  compared  with  the  Roman 
missions,  the  work  of  the  evangelical  Churches  cannot 
be  ignored  in  a statement  of  Latin  America’s  religious 
inheritance.*  Their  late  appearance  as  religious  factors 
is  explained  in  the  succeeding  section.  Passing  over  the 
sporadic  and  unsuccessful  attempts  which  in  the  sixteenth 
and  seventeenth  centuries  were  made  in  Brazil  respec- 
tively by  the  Swiss  and  Dutch  Reformed  Churches,  we 
may  settle  upon  1735  as  marking  the  beginning  of  mod- 
em evangelical  effort  in  South  America.  In  that  year 
the  Moravians  began  their  work  in  British  Guiana.  In 
1738  they  extended  it  to  Dutch  Guiana.  At  the  other  end 
of  the  continent  Captain  Allen  Gardiner,  who  had  or- 
ganized in  1844  the  South  American  Missionary  Society, 
founded  and  sealed  by  his  death  the  Tierra  del  Fuego 
mission  in  1851.  As  for  the  Latin  states,  the  first  en- 

'Bryce:  “South  America,  Observations  and  Impressions.” 
583. 

“C.  H.  Robinson:  “History  of  Christian  Missions”  (Inter- 
national Theological  Library),  Edinburgh,  1915.  409f. 

’The  present  extent  of  the  work  is  summarily  indicated  in 
Chapter  IV  of  the  Report  of  Commission  I,  in  the  appended 
statistical  tables  and  in  the  maps  under  preparation. 

26 


during  mission  to  Spanish-  or  Portuguese-speaking  peo- 
ples was  that  established  in  Brazil  in  1855  by  Dr.  Kalley, 
although  he  had  been  preceded  at  Rio  de  Janeiro  by  the 
Methodists  of  the  United  States  in  their  temporary  effort 
between  1836  and  1842,  the  same  body  having  started 
English-speaking  work  in  Buenos  Aires  in  1836  which 
was  enlarged  in  1864  to  include  Spanish-speaking  work 
also.  The  American  Presbyterians  began  work  in  Brazil 
in  1859.  The  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  founded  its 
mission  in  the  same  field  in  the  year  1889.  The  Presby- 
terian Church  was  also  the  pioneer  in  Colombia,  which, 
next  to  Brazil,  is  the  oldest  Protestant  field  on  the  conti- 
nent. The  beginning  was  made  at  Bogota  in  1856.  Since 
the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century  every  other  country 
in  South  America,  except  French  Guiana,  has  been 
entered,  with  presumable  permanency,  by  evangelical 
agencies. 

In  Central  America  work  began  on  the  Moskito  coast 
as  early  as  1740  and  has  subsequently  been  extended  from 
various  sources  through  British  and  American  Societies 
to  the  five  republics  and  to  Panama.  In  the  Greater 
Antilles,  Haiti  was  entered  in  1861,  Cuba  in  1871,  and 
Porto  Rico  in  1899.  Mexico  has  been  a field  of  evan- 
gelical endeavor  since  1861. 

These  missions,  though  struggling  with  great  difficul- 
ties, have  on  the  whole  met  with  encouraging  response. 
Evidence  shows  that  they  have  exerted  an  uplifting  and 
stimulating  influence  out  of  all  proportion  to  the  number 
of  their  agents  and  adherents.  They  have  passed  the 
pioneer  and  experimental  stage.  , 

POLITICAL  ISOLATION 

The  political  isolation,  intentionally  absolute  and 
actually  almost  complete,  in  which,  through  Spanish  and 
Portuguese  control,  the  transatlantic  colonies  were  so 
long  held  as  regards  the  rest  of  the  world,  is  another 
experience  of  important  relevancy  to  the  right  under- 
standing of  religious  conditions  in  the  present  Latin 
America.  That  experience  is  largely  responsible  for  the 
absence  of  initiative,  and  for  the  apparent  reluctance 
with  which  the  establishment  and  cultivation  of  relations 
with  countries  outside  the  Latin  zone  has  proceeded,  even 
since  the  birth  of  the  republics,  and  with  ample  recog- 


Practically  the 
work  of  the  last 
half  century 


Its  encouraging 
progress 


Political  isolation 
explains  the  slow 
process  of 
e^'^nsielical 
Christianity 


27 


For  three  centuries 
Spain  and  Portugal 
monopolized  all 
relations 


They  enforced 
intellectual  as  well 
as  political  isolation 


nition,  by  Latin-American  leaders,  of  the  desirability  of 
those  relations. 

For  about  three  hundred  years  from  the  time  of  the 
first  colonization  in  the  first  half  of  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury down  to  the  era  of  emancipation  which  dawned  with 
the  nineteenth,  the  Iberian  monarchies,  imperious  and 
self-interested,  exercised  unlimited  authority  in  monopo- 
listic exploitation  of  the  oversea  dominions.  Political 
absolutism,  based  on  the  assumption  of  the  divine  right 
of  sovereigns  to  govern  and  the  duty  of  the  conquered 
or  dependent  to  be  ruled,  was  made  effective  in  a thor- 
oughgoing and  far-reaching  manner.  It  was  rigorously 
applied,  not  only  to  political  relations  but  to  commercial, 
educational  and  religious  matters  as  well.  In  the  first 
place  the  colonies  were  forbidden  to  trade  with  any  non- 
Hispanic  nation,  or  with  each  other.  Hampering  and 
coercive  restrictions,  to  the  advantage  of  Spain  and 
Portugal,  were  placed  upon  all  commerce  between  them 
and  their  dependencies.  The  result  was  that  for  nearly 
three  centuries  there  was  almost  no  immigration  except 
that  from  the  Peninsula,  very  little  foreign  visitation, 
and  almost  total  discouragement  of  foreign  capital  or 
foreign  interest  in  the  development  of  the  safely-guarded, 
far-away  lands.  All  Europe  understood  that  any  foot- 
hold or  trade  advantage  in  the  new  world  would  have  to 
be  fought  for  against  the  might  of  the  mother  countries. 

In  the  second  place,  the  government  restriction  tended 
to  make  the  intellectual  isolation  of  the  colonies  as  com- 
plete as  their  political  allegiance  and  their  commercial 
dependence.  Educcrtion  was  committed  to  the  hands  of  the 
clergy.  Schools  were  established  in  most  communities, 
though  their  number  was  vastly  inadequate  to  meet  the 
demands  of  the  growing  populations.  General,  and 
especially  primary,  education  was  conspicuously  neg- 
lected. Vast  multitudes  in  succeeding  decades  grew  up 
in  ignorance,  while  the  comparatively  few,  principally 
creoles,  who  received  instruction  were  restricted  to  the 
clerical  institutions  supported  by  the  government  and 
conducted  by  the  religious  orders.  The  majority  of  the 
schools  were  under  control  of  the  Jesuits,  whose  system, 
excellent  in  method  and  thorough  in  discipline,  and  hav- 
ing a basis  of  humanistic  culture,  was  yet  aristocratic, 

28 


dogmatic  and  ecclesiastical  in  character,  inhibiting  all 
initiative,  spontaneity  and  freedom  of  opinion.  Educa- 
tion was  “designed  to  make  men  submissive  to  monarchi- 
cal authority  in  church  and  state.”  It  was  conducted, 
on  the  one  hand,  as  a church  discipline  in  exclusive  and 
traditional  orthodoxy,  and,  on  the  other  hand,  as  a gov- 
ernment measure  against  insubordination.  In  other 
words,  clerical  education  in  the  Colonial  period  did  not 
rise  above  the  limitations  of  mediaeval  scholasticism.  It 
included  no  technical  or  industrial  studies,  did  not  pre- 
pare the  people  for  the  practical  duties  of  citizenship, 
and  was  in  a unique  degree  unaffected  by  the  newer  his- 
torical, scientific  and  social  impulses  which  marked  the 
development  of  European  learning  during  the  seven- 
teenth and  eighteenth  centuries. 

In  the  third  place,  Spain  was  not  only  imperialistic  in 
her  sway,  but  avowedly  theocratic.  In  her  religious  pro- 
gram she  was  as  absolute  as  in  her  politics,  as  exclusive 
as  in  her  economic  exploitations,  as  discriminating  as  in 
her  educational  procedure.  She  sealed  up  the  South 
American  ports  not  merely  to  prevent  foreign  trade  but 
also  to  keep  out  heresy.  She  threw  a whole  continent 
into  conventual  seclusion  to  defend  and  preserve  the 
Roman  Catholic  faith. 

A succession  of  repressive  laws  was  supplemented  by 
the  transportation  to  the  Colonies  of  the  dread  Inquisi- 
tion with  its  harrowing  processes,  its  autos  da  fe,  its  sys- 
tematic aim  of  preventing  or  crushing  out  all  ideas  un- 
sanctioned by  the  politico-ecclesiastical  regime. 

Parallel  with  the  exclusive  and  forced  preemption  of 
the  whole  field  by  Spanish  rule  in  the  interests  of  Roman 
Catholicism  is  the  fact  of  the  almost  total  neglect  of 
Latin  America  by  the  evangelical  agencies  which  grew 
cut  of  religious  reform  in  Europe.  A single  Huguenot 
attempt  in  Brazil  in  1556  became  abortive  through  the 
perfidy  of  its  promoter.  The  evangelical  Churches  ig- 
nored the  Hispanic  colonies  not  entirely  because  of  the 
attitude  of  the  state  ecclesiasticism  imposed  upon  them, 
but  more  specially  because  the  foreign  missionary  enter- 
prise had  not  yet,  for  various  reasons,  begun  to  draw  the 
new  communions  to  lands  beyond  the  seas.  The  neg- 


They  believed  in 
religious  absolutism 


The  religious  re- 
formers of  Europe 
ignored  Latin 
America 


29 


Latin  America 
was  thus  isolated 
from  the  invigorating 
influences  of  the 
world 


Idealism  a 
characteristic  trend 


Which  guided  the 
patriotism  of  the 
nineteenth  century 


lect  was,  nevertheless,  contributory  to  the  spiritual  isola- 
tion of  Latin  America. 

Through  circumstances,  therefore,  outside  of  her  own 
determining,  Latin  America  was  separated  for  three  cen- 
turies from  the  great  centers  and  currents  of  liberation 
and  reform — intellectual,  social  and  religious — which 
arose  in  Europe  and  flowed  from  it  from  the  sixteenth 
century  onward.  Not  only  by  geographical  distance  and 
language,  but  likewise  by  exclusive  political  and  com- 
mercial segregation  and  by  prohibitory  tutelage  in  edu- 
cation and  religion,  the  South  American  world  was  cut 
off  from  the  impact  of  the  new  life  of  Europe  as  well  as 
from  such  invigorating  influences  as  founded  the  Puritan 
settlements  of  the  northern  states.  These  are  plain  his- 
toric facts,  set  down  not  at  all  to  the  disparagement  of 
the  Latin-American  peoples,  but  simply  to  indicate  the 
peculiar  lines  along  which  they  progressed. 

Latin  America  inevitably  bears  to-day  the  effects  of  her 
long  isolation,  in  institutions  and  attitudes  which  are  all 
her  own.  It  should  be  obvious  also  that  the  presuppositions 
underlying  the  proper  presentation  of  the  gospel  to-day 
cannot  be  the  same  for  Latin  America  as  for  lands  more 
directly  and  continously  affected  by  those  intellectual  and 
religious  movements  from  which,  for  so  long  a period, 
the  southern  colonies  were  kept  well-nigh  intact. 

DEMOCRATIC  IDEALISM 

One  more  factor,  inherent  in  the  Latin-American  char- 
acter and  full  of  potency  and  promise  in  the  making  of 
Latin-American  civilization,  remains  to  be  noted.  It  is 
one  which  touches  the  religious  life  at  its  higher  levels, 
and  one  which  occasions  relieving  surprise  and  encour- 
agement in  view  of  what  was  said  in  the  preceding 
section  concerning  the  repression  and  isolation  of  the 
colonial  period.  The  Latin-Americans  have  evolved  and 
elaborated  an  exalted  theory  of  the  state,  of  society,  of 
government,  a democratic  idealism  rich  in  visions  of  lib- 
erty, brotherhood,  justice  and  peace. 

Colonizing  monarchies  might  launch  restringent  and 
prohibitory  decrees,  but  were  powerless  to  quench  the 
flame  of  ethical  desire  which  burned  deep  in  the  Latin- 
American  soul,  ready  to  leap  out  into  commonwealths  of 


30 


freedom,  progress,  happiness  and  high  destiny.  Diplo- 
mats, travelers  and  students  from  the  colonies  could  not 
be  prevented  from  visiting  Europe  and  North  America. 
The  eighteenth  century  was  a time  of  exodus,  foreign 
residence  and  return.  Pent-up  patriotisms  crying  for  de- 
liverance were  nourished  and  disciplined  at  foreign  seats 
of  learning,  and  at  centers  of  thought  beyond  the  vigi- 
lance and  dominance  of  Spain  and  Portugal  whose  abso- 
lutism was  fading  under  the  shadow  of  Napoleon.  Mean- 
while a new  light  was  dawning  in  the  hearts  of  colonial 
leaders  yet  unknown.  The  literature  of  liberalism,  ideal- 
ism and  reform  from  Italy  and  France,  and,  later  from 
England,  found  its  readers  on  the  Argentine  pampas,  the 
Brazilian  rivers,  the  Mexican  plateaus,  or  the  Chilean 
strand.  The  slumbering  flame  became  a consuming,  ren- 
ovating fire.  It  leaped  out  in  the  Venezuelan  declaration 
of  independence  in  i8io,  and  in  the  noble  protest  against 
oppression  issued  from  Buenos  Aires  in  1817  by  the  Con- 
stituent Congress  of  the  United  Provinces  of  South 
America.  It  glowed  in  the  liberating  apostolate  of  Boli- 
var, San  Martin,  Artigas,  Tiradentes,  Hidalgo,  Lastarria, 
Montalvo,  and  a host  of  others  who  wrought  for  the 
political  redemption  of  their  countries,  and  dreamed  of 
ideal  communities. 

Incarnate  and  active  in  the  great  leaders,  slumbering 
unconscious  in  the  masses,  who,  ever  and  anon  in  ardent 
and  sacrificial  heroisms,  have  responded  to  its  spell,  the 
gospel  of  a new  order  of  righteousness  has  voiced  itself 
in  deed  and  prophecy.  Underneath  all  the  revo- 
lutionary violence  which  has  marked  the  history  of  the 
republics,  amid  all  the  dramatic  experiments  in  self- 
government,  the  acute  alternations  of  militarism  and  in- 
dustry, the  tense  and  spectacular  conflicts  between  cler- 
icals and  liberals,  the  frequent  and  sometimes  sangui- 
nary clashes  between  the  caudillos,  dictators,  and  despots 
on  the  one  hand,  and  the  tribunes,  emancipators  and 
prophets  on  the  other,  there  has  gleamed,  defining  itself 
in  increasing  clearness,  an  idealism  refined  and  subli- 
mated, which  is  an  index  of  the  spiritual  aspiration  of 
the  Latin-American  people. 

To  a regrettable  degree,  it  is  justifiably  feared,  have 
European  and  North' American  beholders  and  students 
of  Hispano-American  development  been  so  intent  on  the 


This  idealism  has 
supported  Latin- 
American  aspiration 


31 


It  is  a truly 

Latin-American 

quality 


With  potency 
for  the  future 


Greatly  influenced 
French  idealism 


external  aspects  of  the  numerous  revolutions  through 
which,  however  mistakenly,  the  self-liberated  states  have 
sought  to  realize  their  ideals,  that  sight  has  been  lost 
of  the  high-souled  yearnings  which  have  burned  at  the 
heart  of  those  tempestuous  events.  Too  often  there  has 
been  little  discernment  of  the  fine  feelings  and  lofty 
principles,  which,  though  imperfectly  expressed,  abide 
when  the  tumult  and  the  shouting  have  died  away. 

The  glowing  vision  of  equalitarian,  fraternal,  righteous 
commonwealths,  in  which  the  good  of  all  shall  be  the 
quest  of  each,  has  become  a passion  with  a considerable 
group  of  patriots.  If  in  part  it  is  a recrudescence  of  the 
original  Spanish  genius  for  individualism  and  autonomy  , 
ere  yet  the  Spanish  state  was  overborne  by  monarchical 
absolutism  and  imposed  tradition,  this  passion  is  more 
fully  explained  by  the  resilience  and  creative  energy  of 
the  Latin-American  mind  itself  when  once  it  is  free  to 
follow  its  native  elan. 

This  democratic  idealism  has  only  incipiently  realized 
itself  in  the  overthow  of  imperialism  and  the  setting  up 
of  republics.  It  has  soaring  dreams  of  the  future.  It 
utters  its  prophecies  in  the  political  ideology  of  states- 
men, the  enthusiasms  of  sociologists,  the  fervid  eloquence 
of  orators,  and  above  all  in  the  indigenous  literature  of 
the  young  democracies,  in  both  poetry  and  prose.  From 
the  early  poets — Andrade  of  the  Argentine,  Olmedo  of 
Ecuador,  Gregorio  de  Mattos  of  Brazil,  Marti  of  Cuba, 
de  Tagle  of  Mexico,  down  to  the  days  of  Santos  Chocano 
of  Peru  and  of  Ruben  Dario  of  Nicaragua,  dean  of  the 
present  modernistic  school,  the  American  masters  of 
Spanish  and  Portuguese  verse  have  never  ceased  to  sing 
of  new  hopes  and  luring  prospects  rising  out  of  the  ruins 
of  the  shattered  past. 

'’y  Reference  has  been  made  to  the  influence  of  France 
on  the  Latin-American  spirit.  First  the  sufferings  of 
the  colonies,  next  the  example  of  the  United  States  in 
her  achieved  independence,  but  most  of  all  the  French 
Revolution  fired  the  southern  patriots,  and  emboldened 
them  to  seek  new  forms  of  national  life.  Lamar- 
tine, the  lyric  prophet  of  France,  might  be  cited  as  an 
example.  He  drew  his  political  ideas  from  the  New 
Testament,  sang  in  his  poems  of  'Christian  love  of  hu- 
manity, and  defined  democracy  as  “the  direct  reign  of 


32 


God,”  the  application  of  Christian  principles  to  the  prob- 
lems of  the  world.  He  was  predominantly  sentimental, 
but  he  looked  in  the  right  direction  for  the  secret  and 
power  of  righteousness. 

If,  in  addition  to  their  evangel  and  ministry  to  the 
masses,  including  the  poor  and  needy,  the  evangelical 
Churches  are  to  have  a message  for  the  twentieth  century 
leadership  of  Latin  America,  this  must  necessarily  relate 
itself  to  this  idealistic  tradition  which  sums  up  the  most 
ardent  yearning  and  the  most  heroic  activity  for  what 
the  leaders  conceive  to  be  the  common  and  supreme  good. 
Evangelical  Christianity  need  not  hesitate  to  declare  that 
through  the  acceptance  and  application  of  the  gospel  of 
Christ,  the  highest  hopes  of  the  leaders  can  be  fulfilled 
wherein  they  are  right  and  transcended  wherein  they  are 
imperfect;  and  that  the  true  welfare  of  the  republics  can 
be  realized  in  the  establishment  of  what  Jesus  meant  by 
the  kingdom  of  God. 

What,  then,  in  view  of  this  historic  background  with 
its  lights  and  shadows,  should  be  the  burden  and  appli- 
cation of  the  Christian  message  for  Latin  America  to- 
day ? 

Obviously  the  democracies  have  a right  to  hear,  and 
it  is  the  Church’s  solemn  duty  to  proclaim,  the  primary 
gospel  of  Christ,  the  evangelical  message  of  the  New 
Testament,  the  essentials  of  Christianity,  primitive  and 
pure,  the  clear  notes  of  a redeeming  evangel,  unencum- 
bered either  by  the  ecclesiastical  accretions  of  Roman 
Catholicism  or  by  ultrasectarian  forms  and  dogmas  of 
Protestantism.  Back  of  this  evangel  is  the  assurance  that 
the  true  Christian  Qiurch  is  the  home  and  the  propelling 
force  of  true  democracy. 


With  it  evangelical 
Christianity  must 
declare  its  sympathy 


33 


The  evangelical 
churches  eager  to 
bring  a blessing 
Latin  America 


Their  missionaries 
are  friendly 
interpreters 


CHAPTER  III 

THE  AIM  AND  MESSAGE  OF  THE 
EVANGELICAL  CHURCHES 

In  view  of  the  whole  situation  set  forth  in  Chapter  II, 
it  is  necessary  now  to  describe  the  general  attitude  and 
spirit  which  the  representatives  of  the  evangelical 
Churches  now  at  work  in  Latin  America  should  manifest, 
and  the  distinctive  message  which  they  have  to  deliver. 
Needless  to  say,  these  men  and  women  would  not  be  at 
work  in  these  lands  unless  they  were  burning  with  the  de- 
sire to  bring  a supreme  religious  blessing  to  them,  and 
were  convinced  that  Latin  America  needs  for  its  further 
and  higher  development,  religiously  and  socially,  the  kind 
6f  force  and  inspiration  which  the  work  of  the  evangeli- 
cal Churches  alone  can  contribute. 

In  the  delivery  of  his  message  the  preacher  of  Christ 
in  Latin  America  ought  to  assume  from  the  start  the 
same  dignified,  positive,  authoritative  attitude  as  in  any 
other  part  of  the  world.  No  doubt  his  work  will  often 
appear  in  a measure  antagonistic  to  the  ancient  traditions 
of  the  people  to  whom  he  ministers.  And  in  such  cases, 
when  controversy  or  comparison  of  the  evangelical  with 
the  Roman  position  is  forced  upon  him,  he  must  be  firm, 
clear  and  fearless,  as  well  as  wise  and  kindly,  in  the  man- 
ner in  which  he  carries  out  his  task.  But  the  main 
trend  of  his  teaching,  the  controlling  tone  of  his  appeals, 
must  not  be  that  of  a mere  protester  against  or  bitter  op- 
ponent of  the  established  religion.  Rather  must  he  cher- 
ish in  his  own  heart  and  mind,  and  must  convey  to 
his  hearers,  the  deep,  masterful  consciousness  that  he  is 


34 


declaring  the  true  revelation  of  God  which  is  older  than 
Romanism,  and  which  from  the  days  of  the  apostles  has 
constituted  the  true  substance  of  the  saving  gospel  of 
Divine  grace.  Controversy,  when  necessary  because  of 
attacks  which  are  likely  to  create  misunderstanding  if 
unmet,  or  because  it  is  sometimes  essential  to  clear  the 
ground  for  the  constructive  presentation  of  a positive 
message,  should  never  go  beyond  the  point  of  “speaking 
the  truth  in  love.” 


I.  The  Bible. 

In  carrying  out  his  work  the  evangelical  preacher  not 
only  takes  his  text,  but  expounds  his  whole  message,  from 
and  by  authority  of  the  Bible.  He  ought  so  to  deliver  his 
message  that  his  hearers  may  understand,  so  far  as  his 
method  influences  them,  that  the  Bible  is  the  most  cath- 
olic of  books  and  not  merely  an  evangelical  document.  He 
uses  it  as  containing  the  authentic  teaching  of  Jesus  Christ 
and  His  apostles.  There  can  be  no  higher  authority  con- 
cerning the  real  nature  of  Christianity  and  its  funda- 
mental saving  truths  than  the  Book  which  alone  pre- 
serves the  actual  story  of  their  words  and  works.  Upon 
the  teachings  of  Jesus  Christ  and  the  great  apostles 
the  Church  was  founded,  and  it  can  have  no  other  his- 
torical foundation,  no  other  outward  court  of  appeal, 
than  that,  for  the  exposition  and  defense  of  these  saving 
truths.  The  Roman  Church  freely  accepts  and  appeals  to 
the  authority  of  this  Book  as  the  Word  of  God.  On  this 
the  decrees  of  the  Council  of  Trent,  the  teachings  of  the 
great  Roman  Catholic  theologians,  and  even  the  encyclical 
of  the  late  pope  against  modernism,  are  unanimous. 

Now  the  central  and  distinctive  position  of  the  evan- 
gelical Church  is  this  twofold  affirmation;  First,  that  as 
the  teaching  of  Christ  and  His  apostles  was  addressed 
to  the  poor  and  the  unlearned,  as  well  as  to  the  rich  and 
learned,  and  as  it  was  preserved  in  the  Bible,  this  Book 
can  be  used  by  all  classes  of  all  generations  and  races  to 
know  what  is  essential  to  be  known  for  salvation  concern- 
ing God  the  Father,  Maker  of  all  things  visible  and  in- 
visible, concerning  God  the  Son,  Redeemer  of  all  man- 
kind, and  concerning  God  the  Holy  Ghost,  who  sancti- 
fieth  all  the  people  of  God.  Second,  nothing  which  is 
declared  by  Christ  to  be  necessary  for  salvation  can  be 


The  evangelical 
preacher  exalts 
the  Bible 


As  revealing  what 
is  necessary  for 
salvation 


And  as  indicating 
what  is  really 
authoritative 


35 


He  has  a glorious 
message  of  God’s 
fatherhood 


He  preaches  the  true 
divinity,  the  atoning 
power,  the  personal 
leadership  and  t'ne 
authoritative  teach- 
ing of  Jesus  Christ 


added  to  or  detracted  from,  by  any  other  authority,  with- 
out a deep  injury  being  done  to  the  human  soul,  and  a 
deep  wrong  to  its  eternal  interests.  Used  in  this  sane, 
historical  and  spiritual  way,  the  Bible  can  become  to  the 
preacher  and  his  hearers  an  unfailing  source  of  power 
in  the  delivery  of  a penetrating  and  constructive  mes- 
sage, and  a perpetual  source  of  strength  in  declaring  the 
majestic  truths  of  the  gospel. 

2.  God  the  Father. 

The  evangelical  preacher  is  primarily  concerned  with 
two  great  questions,  vis.,  the  awakening  of  the  soul  dead 
in  sin  and  the  reality  of  its  communion  with  God.  In 
dealing  with  these  he  must  face  the  duty  of  declaring  that 
God  the  Creator  and  Lord  of  all  has  made  Himself  known 
as  the  Father  and  Saviour  of  men  in  Jesus  Christ,  His 
Son.  This  is  the  forefront  of  the  message,  that  God  has 
made  Himself  known,  and  that  He  is  accessible  to  all, 
through  one  Person.  The  gracious  and  personal  father- 
hood of  God  was  the  heart  of  Christ’s  teaching  which 
too  many  systems  of  thought  have  obscured.  The 
Church  is  the  community  of  all  believers,  to  whom  the 
kingdom  of  Fleaven  has  been  opened.  Through  and  in 
that  Church  which  is  the  body  of  Christ  the  faith  and 
knowledge  and  love  of  God  has  been  and  is  preserved 
and  conveyed  from  man  to  man  and  from  one  generation 
to  another.  The  one  supreme  matter  is  that  every  soul 
can  have  dealing  directly  and  personally  with  God,  as 
every  soul  must  answer  to  Him  at  the  last  in  the  self- 
same direct  and  personal  manner. 

3.  Jesus  Christ. 

The  center  of  Christianitv  is  the  person  and  work  of 
Jesus  Christ.  Cor.cerning  Him  in  such  a field  as  Latin 
Am.erica  four  fundamental  matters  must  be  duly  and  in 
true  perspective  emphasized. 

(i)  He  is  Divine,  the  Son  of  God  incarnate,  “God 
manifest  in  the  flesh.”  Hence  it  is  that  what  He  said  and 
did  was  directly  and  immediately  the  word  and  deed  of 
God  the  Father.  None  other  can  surpass  Him  in  making 
God  knov.m.  None  other  than  He,  with  the  Father  and 
the  Spirit,  can  be  the  object  of  faith  and  worship  after 
the  example  of  the  Apostolic  Church. 

36 


(2)  In  His  life  and  death  of  sacrifice  Jesus  Christ 
revealed  directly  and  perfectly  the  holy  love  of  God,  and 
by  His  death  on  Calvary  He  once  for  all  made  full  atone- 
ment for  our  sins.  In  Him  the  love  of  God  shines  forth 
as  the  tender  and  pure  merciful  love  of  the  Father.  It 
is  blasphemy  to  think  that  any  one  is  needed  to  persuade 
Him  to  have  mercy,  and  it  is  entirely  contrary  to  the 
teaching  of  the  apostles  to  suppose  that  any  one  can  have 
more  power  with  God  than  He.  Not  only  is  He  alone  the 
Saviour,  but  He  is  the  Saviour.  He  has  no  other  will 
concerning  any  man  who  feels  the  need  of  God’s  mercy 
and  grace  than  to  pour  them  out  upon  him.  He  exists 
in  love,  and  His  whole  will  towards  man  moves  in  love, 
personal,  direct  and  intimate. 

(3)  He,  the  Risen  Christ,  the  only  Head  of  the 
Church,  is  in  direct  control,  through  His  all-pervasive 
Spirit,  of  the  history  and  the  destiny,  the  character  and 
conduct,  of  every  human  being.  With  Him  each  man 
is  constantly  and  fully  related,  and  to  Him  each  man 
must  commit  his  career  in  this  world,  as  well  as  his 
final  destiny  in  that  which  is  to  come.  No  more  inspir- 
ing message  can  be  given  to  the  men  of  Latin  America 
than  that  of  the  personal  leadership  of  Jesus  Christ.  The 
greatest  and  the  humblest  are  impressed  by  the  idea  of  a 
privilege  so  unexpected  in  the  light  of  their  former 
training,  so  surpassing  in  its  essential  wonder  and  power, 
so  evidently  based  on  the  nature  of  New  Testament 
Christianity.  Experience  shows  that  direct  and  contrO' 
versial  public  attack  upon  the  worship  of  the  Virgin,  when 
thrust  into  the  foreground  of  the  work,  awakens  only 
fanatical  hatred  and  detestation  of  Protestantism.  But 
when  the  message  of  fellowship  with  the  God  of  loving 
mercy  through  Christ  the  Redeemer,  and  of  the  promised 
leadership  of  Christ,  is  steadily,  intelligently  proclaimed, 
the  worship  of  Mary  and  the  saints  falls  away.  Its  anti- 
christian  nature  is  at  once  apparent  when  the  true  place 
of  Christ,  not  merely  in  theological  statement,  but  in 
actual  experience,  is  made  clear  and  becomes  effective. 

(4)  The  teaching  of  Jesus  is  presented  to  us  as  the 
supreme  guide  of  our  life.  What  His  character  was, 
what  His  lips  spoke,  is  the  supreme  law  of  our  individual 
character  and  of  our  social  relationships.  We  should  al- 
low no  other  standards  of  conduct  to  weaken  the  force 


37 


He  has  a compelling 
message  of  fellowship 
with  God  and  Jesus 
Christ 


of  His  words.  For  the  man  who  would  follow  Jesus, 
the  tests  are  likely  to  be  severe  and  the  sacrifice  great. 
We  must  learn  to  apply  His  teaching  broadly  and  with- 
out fear  to  the  whole  of  our  social  or  national  prejudices, 
to  all  our  fashionable  standards,  to  our  industrial,  politi- 
cal and  ecclesiastical  problems,  for  if  through  Qirist  God 
is  made  known,  it  is  certain  that  through  His  character 
and  teaching  the  very  will  of  God  is  made  articulate,  the 
real  secret  and  source  of  the  evolution  of  humanity 
towards  its  ideal  is  laid  open  to  our  gaze.  The  nation 
which  will  make  Christ’s  will  and  spirit  the  guide  of  its 
life  will  make  the  true  development  of  that  life  secure. 

. : i '-  -s  tt;  . . j 

4.  The  Spiritual  Life. 

The  evangelical  preacher  has  no  images,  no  list  of 
saints,  to  recommend  as  objects  of  trust  and  appeal.  He 
has  on  the  other  hand  the  unsurpassed  gift  of  personal 
and  intim.ate  and  loving  communion  with  the  Father  and 
the  Saviour  to  offer  to  every  man  on  the  authority  of  the 
original  gospel  of  Christ  and  His  apostles.  When  he 
proclaims  the  redemption  wrought  out  on  the  Cross, 
when  he  proclaims,  with  a heart  full  of  joy  and  confi- 
dence, the  forgiveness  of  sins,  he  proclaims  also  the  only 
conditions  on  which  these  gifts  become  the  inalienable 
possession  of  every  man.  These  are  repentance  from 
sin,  and  faith  in  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  It  is  a universal 
message,  and  the  conditions  are  those  which  every  man 
can  fulfill  if  he  will  do  so.  No  message  is  so  distinctive 
of  the  New  Testament  as  a whole,  none  is  so  alien  to 
the  spirit  of  all  systems  and  religions  which  are 
not  evangelical,  and  none  has  proved  so  attractive  to 
all  classes  of  men  in  all  parts  of  the  world,  wherever  it 
has  been  delivered  with  conviction,  clearness  and  love. 
This  is  the  point  at  which  the  tyranny  of  priestcraft  can 
be  broken  down  most  effectively,  for  the  man  who  hears 
the  appeal  of  God  to  his  own  soul  and  the  summons  to 
trust  his  Father  directly  is  soon  aware  that  the  intrusion 
of  a priestly  functionary  upon  his  inner  relations  with 
God  is  an  outrage  on  God’s  grace  and  on  the  human  con- 
science. But  again  the  wisest  and  most  successful  evan- 
gelical preachers  have  found  that  direct  controversy  is 
less  efficient  than  the  tremendous  influence  of  the  posi- 
tive message  of  pardon  and  personal  access  to  God 


38 


through  Christ  alone.  The  message  of  forgiveness,  of 
justification  or  acceptance  into  God’s  direct  and  constant 
fello'wship,  addressed  to  all  prodigal  sons,  implies  that  he 
who  obeys  can  live  daily  with  God.  It  has  been  found 
that  to  many  Latin  Americans,  Roman  Catholics  and 
agnostics  alike,  this  is  a thrilling  and  utterly  unexpected 
announcement,  that  prayer  is  a daily  speech  with  God 
concerning  all  the  affairs  of  a man’s  daily  concern.  A 
man  may  consult  God,  a man  may  daily  ask  for  and  ex- 
pect and  possess  the  sympathy  of  God,  a man  may  tread 
the  streets  or  do  his  work,  or  sit  at  home,  and  all  the 
time  be  aware  of  God  and  continue  in  personal  conver- 
sation with  Him. 

Needless  to  say,  the  evangelical  message  offers,  to  all 
who  will  accept  it,  the  joys  of  the  Divine  sonship,  the  sa- 
cred comfort  of  the  Divine  promises,  and  the  glorious 
light  upon  man’s  sorrow  and  struggle  of  the  Christian 
hope.  In  such  lives  we  may  expect  to  see  the  fruit  of 
the  Spirit  flourishing  abundantly  in  the  characters  of  pure 
and  generous  men  and  women. 

5.  The  Church  and  Its  Fellowship. 

The  evangelical  preacher  is  a representative  of  the  or- 
ganized Church  of  Christ.  That  Church  has  gone  through 
a rich  and  varied  evolutionary  process,  which  has  re- 
sulted in  historic  types  of  organization,  such  as  the  GreTl-c 
Church,  the  Roman  Church,  the  Lutheran  Church,  the 
Church  of  England,  the  Presbyterian  Church,  and  many 
others.  These  are  all  nowadays  represented  more  or  less 
in  all  lands.  Some  of  them  have  departed  further  than 
others  from  the  original  type  described  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment. Some  have  added  much  in  their  teaching  and 
practice  which  is  not  true  to  that  type  and  must  in  time 
be  discarded.  All  who  belong  to  what  are  called  the 
evangelical  Communions  believe  that  they  add  least  to, 
and  subtract  least  from,  the  true  ideal.  The  differences 
among  them  are  due  partly  to  historic  national  situations, 
partly  to  developments  in  culture  and  spiritual  life  in  the 
various  so-called  Protestant  countries.  But  the  evangeli- 
cal Churches  are  all  deeply  conscious  of  the  essential 
matters  which  make  them  to  be  truly  members  of  the 
one  holy  Catholic  Church  of  Christ,  and  they  are  in- 
creasingly anxious  to  realize  in  outward,  loving  coopera- 


He  represents  the 
organized  Church  in 
its  various 
Communions,  one  in 
essentials,  free  in 
non-essentials 


39 


He  emphasizes 
church  membership  as 
a means  of  living  in 
sincere  loyalty  to 
Christ 


And  should  lay  due 
stress  upon  orderli- 
ness,  dignity  and 
reverence  in  worship 


tion  and  unity  that  inward  harmony  of  faith  and  love 
towards  God  in  Christ  which  they  recognize  that  they 
all  hold  in  common.  In  view  of  the  Latin-American  love 
of  uniformity  in  the  Church  and  dislike  of  variety,  it  is 
of  vital  importance  that  the  evangelical  preacher  should 
explain  fully  and  intelligently  the  underlying  unity  of 
the  various  sections,  and  at  the  same  time  the  natural  man- 
ner in  which  the  various  forms  have  arisen.-  Further  it 
should  be  constantly  urged  that  there  is  no  desire  to  im- 
part mere  sectariansm  to  Latin  America,  but  a desire  so 
to  preach  the  apostolic  message  that  a true  evangelical 
Church  may  arise  in  each  of  the  republics,  formed  in 
each  case  from  the  experience  of  the  grace  of  God  on 
the  part  of  its  own  saints  and  in  the  light  of  indigenous 
culture.  The  formal  relationship  with  the  then  existing 
Christian  Churches  in  other  lands  and  with  the  historic 
church  movement  through  the  ages  that  such  national 
Churches  would  have  are  matters  which  these  Churches 
would  doubtless  determine  for  themselves. 

When  therefore  the  evangelical  preacher  invites  those 
whom  he  has  led  into  the  experience  of  peace  with  God 
and  fellowship  with  Christ  to  unite  with  the  Church  he 
represents,  his  supreme  desire  is  that  the  new  convert 
may  learn  to  live  in  the  atmosphere  of  a Christian  com- 
munity. There  his  faith,  his  love,  his  obedience,  his  spir- 
itual joy,  his  moral  character,  may  be  constantly  en- 
riched and  increased,  if  he  will  earnestly  and  humbly  and 
lovingly  unite  in  worship  and  service  with  those  who 
love  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  Undoubtedly  the  simplicity 
and  bareness  of  most  evangelical  forms  of  worship  seems 
cold  and  even  repulsive  to  those  who  have  associated  the 
worship  of  Almighty  God  always  and  only  with  ornate 
services  full  of  mystery  and  symbolism.  To  meet  this 
inborn  and  ingrained  habit  of  thought  and  feeling  every 
effort  should  be  used  to  have  church  buildings  that  are 
beautiful,  even  where  simple,  and  clean  even  when  fre- 
quented mainly  by  the  poor.  And  the  preachers  should 
be  careful  to  see  that  in  all  formal  and  public  acts  of 
worship  there  should  be  great  dignity,  order  and  beauty. 
Ragged  and  unprepared  services,  informal  manners  in 
the  pulpit,  familiar  or  irreverent  tones  in  prayer,  should 
all  be  avoided  at  Sunday  services  as  sedulously  as  slip- 
shod composition  and  careless,  offhand  delivery  of  ser- 


40 


tnons.  There  is  a science  and  an  art  of  worship  even 
among  non-liturgical  Churches  which  all  too  few 
preachers  master,  and  the  absence  of  this  offends  the 
taste,  shocks  the  reverence  and  excites  the  contempt  of 
cultivated  people  everywhere.  In  such  an  environment 
as  that  of  Latin  America  no  care  should  be  spared  in 
the  conduct  of  public  worship  to  make  the  building  and 
the  music,  the  prayer  and  the  preaching,  suggest  wor- 
ship, awaken  the  sense  of  the  presence  of  God,  gather 
in  the  spirit  that  is  eager  for  the  touch  upon  the  imag- 
ination as  well  as  for  the  appeal  to  reason  and  conscience, 
to  feed  on  the  spiritual  bread  that  is  offered  to  the  soul. 

6.  The  Kingdom  of  God  on  Earth. 

It  should  be  kept  in  view  that  the  great  leaders  of  the  He  should  preach 
evangelical  Church  have  always  been  deeply  concerned  righteousness 

with  the  relation  of  the  Christian  message  to  the  social 
life  of  man  and  the  helpful  influence  of  the  church 
upon  the  state.  The  names  of  Luther  and  Calvin  and 
John  Knox  are  associated  with  great  movements  in  social 
and  political  organization  as  well  as  with  reform  in  the 
.sphere  of  religion.  Men  like  Zinzendorf,  John  Wesley, 
and  Moody,  though  known  as  great  evangelists  seeking 
the  conversion  of  individual  souls  to  God,  were  drawn 
into  active  service  of  the  poor  and  the  unlearned.  No 
one  can  be  unaware  of  the  fact  that  the  great  evangeli- 
cal Churches  of  all  lands  have  been  the  chief  supporters 
of  all  movements  bearing  upon  the  relief  of  suffering, 
the  rebuke  of  unrighteous  customs  and  the  deliverance 
of  the  poor  from  injustice  and  oppression. 

This  whole  matter  will  be  dealt  with  in  a later  section 
of  this  report.  But  it  must  be  named  and  briefly  set 
forth  here  as  part  of  that  message  which  through  preach- 
ing, instruction  and  personal  example  every  Christian 
Church  and  its  ministers  ought  to  be  delivering  steadily 
to  the  communities  in  which  they  are  established.  It  is 
true  that  the  future  life  is  ever  present  to  the  Christian 
consciousness,  the  source  of  much  inspiration  and  the 
haven  of  our  most  sacred  hopes.  But  it  is  no  less  true 
that  we  are  taught  by  our  Lord  to  pray  and  work  that  the 
kingdom  may  come  and  the  will  of  God  be  done  on 
earth  as  in  heaven.  And  our  Lord  Himself  set  us  the 


41 


He  should  uphold 
true  patriotic  and 
social  ideals 


supreme  example  of  that  sublime  union  of  yearning  for 
the  future  triumph  with  utter  devotion  to  the  present 
duty.  Nowhere  can  priestcraft  be  more  definitely  coun- 
teracted than  in  the  teaching  which  leads  laymen  to 
earnest,  organized  service  of  their  fellow-men  here  and 
now.  By  no  means  can  the  training  of  individual  char- 
acter, the  establishment  of  converted  men  and  women  in 
the  love  of  justice  and  the  pursuit  of  social  righteous- 
ness be  better  promoted  than  by  engaging  them  in  the 
active  service  of  their  fellow-men. 

The  end  of  evangelical  teaching  is  to  be  found  not 
only  in  the  pursuit  of  personal  salvation,  but  also  in  the 
constant  manifestation  of  patriotism,  in  the  love  of  our 
fellow-men  and  in  the  desire  to  engage  in  any  and  every 
kind  of  personal  effort  and  concerted  movement  which 
will  tend  to  cleanse  political  life  of  graft,  industrial  life  of 
cruelty,  commercial  life  of  dishonesty,  and  all  social  re- 
lations of  vice  and  depravity.  The  evangelical  message 
will  be  robbed  of  its  great  opportunity  in  Latin  America 
if  it  does  not  prove  its  breadth  and  divine  beauty  by  im- 
pressing the  community  where  any  church  is  established 
with  the  enthusiasm  of  humanity,  in  the  name  of  Christ 
the  Redeemer,  and  God  the  Father,  of  mankind. 


42 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE  EVANGELICAL  CHURCHES  AND  THE 
SOCIAL  GOSPEL 

Both  in  Europe  and  America  the  so-called  Anglo- 
Saxon  and  Latin  civilizations  are  being  drawn  into  closer 
sympathy,  to  the  advantage  of  both.  Former  Secretary 
of  State  Elihu  Root,  when  on  his  South  American  tour  a 
few  years  ago,  said:  “The  newer  civilization  of  North 
America  has  much  to  learn  from  the  older  civilization  of 
South  America,”  and  no  one  appreciates  this  so  fully  as 
those  who  have  made  a first-hand  study  of  the  latter. 
Latin-American  civilization  is  rich  in  the  inheritance  of 
culture,  the  sense  of  beauty,  the  grace  of  manner,  and  the 
spirit  of  chivalry  which  runs  in  the  blood  of  Latin  peoples, 
and  which  can  be  ripened  only  by  time. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  industrial  revolution,  which  is 
only  beginning  in  South  America,  is  already  two  or  more 
generations  old  in  the  United  States,  and  of  course 
much  older  in  Great  Britain.  The  changes  which  it  in- 
evitably works  have  taught  Great  Britain  and  the  United 
States  some  costly  and  valuable  lessons.  It  is  to  be  hoped 
that  Latin  Americans,  by  avoiding  mistakes  made  in  other 
lands,  may  make  a far  greater  success  in  dealing  with 
these  rising  social  problems. 

I.  The  Coming  of  the  Industrial  Revolution  in  Latin 
America. 

The  people  of  the  next  generation  in  Latin  America 
will  live  in  a very  different  world  from  that  of  their  for- 
bears. Great  changes  are  imminent  everywhere,  but  per- 


The  Latin  and  the 
Anglo-Saxon 
civilizations  should 
get  into  touch 


enabling  Latin 
America  to  avoid 
costly  errors  of  the 
past 


The  Latin  America 
of  the  future  very 
different  from  to-day 


43 


It  can  support  a 
far  larger  population 


It  will  produce  ntuch 
of  the  world’s 
food  supply 


A marked  expansion 
of  its  commerce 
to  be  expected 


haps  nowhere  else  will  they  be  quite  so  vast  during  the 
next  thirty  years  as  in  Latin  America. 

(i)  The  development  of  her  virgin  resources. 

The  average  density  of  population  of  the  habitable 
globe  is  placed  at  thirty-six  to  the  square  mile,  whereas 
South  America  is  credited  with  only  five.  If,  therefore, 
the  continent  had  only  average  fertility,  it  would  be  ca- 
pable of  supporting  seven  times  its  present  population. 
That  is,  280,000,000  people  instead  of  40,000,000  would 
give  it  only  the  average  density  of  the  world.  But  South 
America  has  much  more  than  average  fertility.  The 
Encyclopaedia  Britannica  says : “Paradoxical  as  the  fact 
may  appear,  we  are  satisfied  that  the  new  continent, 
though  less  than  half  the  size  of  the  old,  contains  at 
least  an  equal  quantity  of  useful  soil  and  much  more 
than  an  equal  amount  of  productive  power.” ' If  this 
statement  is  correct,  the  average  acre  in  North  and  South 
America  is  more  than  twice  as  productive  as  the  average 
acre  in  Europe,  Asia  and  Africa. 

The  food  supplies  which  the  Old  World  draws  from 
the  New  will  evidently  come  increasingly  from  Latin 
America,  for  agricultural  exports  from  other  food-pro- 
ducing areas  are  decreasing.  There  are  also  great  min- 
eral'resources  in  Latin  America  which  are  undeveloped, 
and  there  is  vast  wealth  in  its  tropical  forests,  while  the 
possible  electrical  power  of  its  remarkable  river  systems 
is  another  great  asset.  That  the  inevitable  development 
of  these  great  natural  resources  will  be  rapid  is  evident: 

o.  Because  it  has  been  in  progress  for  some  years, 
and  billions  of  foreign  capital  have  already  been  invested 
in  it. 

b.  Because  the  present  rate  of  growth  of  the  world’s 
population  means  that  every  ten  years  there  will  be  up- 
wards of  160,000,000  additional  mouths  to  feed. 

c.  Because  the  standard  of  living  is  rapidly  rising  all 
over  the  civilized  world,  which  correspondingly  increases 
the  demand  for  all  the  appliances  of  civilized  life,  and 
for  all  sorts  of  raw  materials. 

d.  Because  under  normal  conditions  capital  which 
seeks  foreign  investment  is  rapidly  increasing  in  the 
world’s  chief  monetary  centers. 


‘Article  on  America,  Ninth  Edition,  Vol.  I,  717. 


4-4 


e.  Because  Latin  American  cities  are  eager  to  ac- 
quire all  the  material  advantages  of  the  new  civilization, 
and  the  holders  of  natural  resources  are  more  than  will- 
ing to  dispose  of  concessions  for  immediate  wealth. 

For  the  above  reasons  there  can  be  little  doubt  that 
Latin  America  will  enjoy  a period  of  marked  expansion 
during  the  first  half  of  the  twentieth  century. 

(2)  A very  important  agency  in  this  expansion  will 
be  the  incoming  of  the  factory  system.  Skilled  labor 
once  attracted  raw  materials  from  a great  distance ; 
it  is  now  found  that  in  many  forms  of  industry  raw 
materials  attract  capital  and  develop  labor  for  their  man- 
ufacture in  close  proximity.  Many  kinds  of  manufactured 
goods  now  cost  several  times  as  much  in  Latin  America 
as  elsewhere,  which  fact  of  course  constitutes  a premium 
on  the  establishment  of  factories  near  the  source  of  raw 
materials  and  close  to  markets.  The  isolation  of  Latin 
America  has  heretofore  retarded  the  development  of  the 
industrial  revolution  in  that  continent.  Not  only  has  the 
development  of  navigation  brought  the  west  coast  of  the 
southern  continent  several  thousand  miles  nearer  Liver- 
pool and  New  York  than  it  formerly  was,  but  South 
America  now  lies  on  the  great  highway  of  the  world,  and 
a constant  procession  of  the  ships  of  all  nations  will  in 
due  time  pass  her  doors.  This  closeness  of  contact  with 
the  life  of  the  world  will  make  increasingly  operative  the 
various  causes  referred  to  above  which  must  surely  hasten 
the  development  of  the  industrial  revolution. 

2.  The  Coming  of  New  Social  Problems  in  Latin 
America. 

The  industrial  revolution,  which  is  now  on  its  way 
around  the  world,  is  vastly  more  than  a radical  change  in 
the  forms  of  industry.  The  method  of  gaining  a liveli- 
hood has  always  had  a powerful  influence  in  shaping  civ- 
ilizations. The  incoming  of  the  factory,  the  opening  up 
of  virgin  resources  and  the  development  of  commerce 
create  conditions  of  life  as  far  removed  from  those  which 
attend  a civilization  primarily  agricultural  as  the  east  is 
from  the  west.  Daily  habits,  the  standard  of  living, 
methods  of  housing,  sanitation,  the  density  of  popula- 
tion, the  death  rate,  the  marriage  rate,  the  birth  rate, 


Because  of  its 
rapid  industrial 
development 


Industrial  develop- 
ments bring  about 
social  changes 


45 


Thrse  induce 
social  problems 


which  complicate 
religious  issues 


predominantly  among 
the  laboring  classes 


In  Latin  America 
the  changes  may  be 
very  abrupt 


interdependence  between  individuals,  classes,  communi- 
ties and  nations,  and  a thousand  other  things  are  all  pro- 
foundly atfected  by  the  organization  of  industry  and  the 
resulting  development  of  mines,  railways  and  factories. 

New  and  conflicting  ideas  and  interests,  class  con- 
sciousness and  at  the  same  time  a growing  sense  of  soli- 
darity, new  conceptions  of  the  relations  of  the  individual 
to  society  embodied  in  socialism,  syndicalism  and  anar- 
chism, new  rights,  new  duties,  new  opportunities,  new 
responsibilities,  new  needs,  new  perils — all  these  go  to 
make  up  the  great  social  problem  so  characteristic  of  our 
times,  which  constitutes  an  imperative  demand  for  the 
readjustment  of  civilization  to  radically  new  conditions 
created  by  the  industrial  revolution. 

These  new  social  problems  complicate  moral  and  re- 
ligious problems.  The  division  of  labor,  which  is  the 
very  essence  of  organized  industry,  multiplies  interde- 
pendence a thousandfold,  renders  human  relationships 
far  more  close  and  complex,  creates  new  rights  and  new 
duties,  and  therefore  raises  new  questions  of  practical 
morals. 

Wherever  the  influence  of  the  new  social  civilization 
has  penetrated,  whether  in-  Great  Britain,  Continental 
Europe  or  the  United  States,  the  tendency  has  been  to 
loosen  the  hold  of  the  churches  on  workingmen ; and 
this  has  been  true  not  only  of  Protestant  Churches,  but 
also  of  the  Roman  Catholic  and  of  the  Greek  Catholic, 
ever  since  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century.  There 
is  no  reason  to  suppose  that  the  influence  of  the  new 
social  civilization  will  be  exceptional  in  Latin  America 
unless,  indeed,  the  fact  that  it  is  imported  and  the  con- 
ditions under  which  it  comes  serve  to  make  it  exception- 
ally trying. 

In  Europe  and  the  United  States  the  application  of 
steam  and  electricity  with  their  consequent  miracles  of 
change  came  slowly  as  inventions  appeared  one  by  one, 
and  gradually  overcame  the  conservatism  of  a public 
which  was  suspicious  of  the  new.  In  Latin  America 
these  revolutionizing  inventions  present  themselves  not 
one  by  one,  but  en  masse;  and  they  are  introduced  not 
as  doubtful  experiments  which  slowly  win  confidence  as 
they  are  slowly  perfected,  but  with  credentials  in  hand, 

46 


after  having  conquered  two  continents.  They  are  ad- 
mitted without  question,  and  begin  their  work  of  trans- 
formation as  fast  as  capital  can  be  procured  to  install 
them.  Social  changes  will,  therefore,  be  much  more 
abrupt  than  they  have  been  in  North  America  and  Europe, 
which  will  render  adjustment  to  them  correspondingly 
more  difficult. 

This  of  course  implies  a rapid  influx  of  foreign  cap- 
ital, of  which,  for  reasons  already  given,  there  can  be 
no  question.  The  vast  amount  of  capital  and  of  initiative 
required  to  open  up  their  continental  resources  cannot 
be  furnished  by  Latin  Americans.  For  nearly  three  hun- 
dred years  they  were  subject  to  paternalism  in  the  state, 
and  for  nearly  four  hundred  years  they  have  been  under 
the  maternalism  of  the  Roman  Church.  Such  conditions 
are  unfavorable  to  the  development  of  the  initiative,  en- 
terprise and  energy  requisite  to  organizing  new  and  great 
business  undertakings.  The  special  gifts  of  Latin  Amer- 
icans lie  in  other  directions. 

Large  amounts  of  British,  German  and  Italian  capital 
have  been  invested  in  Latin  America,  together  with  les- 
ser sums  from  the  United  States  and  Canada.  There  are 
$2,500,000,000  of  British  money  in  the  Argentine  alone, 
and  as  a correlative  fact  there  are  360,000  Britons  there. 
British,  German  and  American  groups  are  found  in  the 
large  cities  generally,  though  North  Americans  are  not 
nearly  so  numerous  as  Europeans. 

These  foreign  colonies,  which  are  so  intimately  con- 
nected with  the  new  conditions*  are  composed  chiefly  of 
young,  unmarried  men,  and  are  adding  to  the  already 
grave  moral  and  religious  problems.  While  some  of  these 
young  m.en  are  of  the  highest  character,  the  testimonies 
of  educators,  physicians,  missionaries  and  others  agree 
that  a great  many  of  them  make  shipwreck  of  them- 
selves morally,  and  very  likely  physically.  The  loss  of 
character,  health  and  life  on  the  part  of  many  young  men 
is  not  all.  The  countries  which  they  represent  are  mis- 
represented. Thus  gratuitous  obstacles  are  thrown  in 
the  way,  not  only  of  evangelical  clergy  and  of  Young 
Men’s  Christian  Association  secretaries,  but  also  of  the 
official,  representatives  of  governments  who  are  seeking 


The  requisite  capital 
and  direction  being 
furnished  from 
abroad 


Foreign  business  men 
often  a disturbing 
moral  influence 


47 


to  establish  more  intimate  and  helpful  relations  between 
the  Latin-American  republics  and  other  lands. 

The  Situation  demands  jr  -j.  j.  • r .1  • 1 . • 1 

careful  study  it  it  appears  that  the  coming  of  the  industrial  revo- 


Many  recognized 
industrial  evils  are 
preventable 

• 

lution  in  Latin  America  and  of  the  resulting  social  prob- 
lems is  attended  by  some  peculiar  difficulties,  it  is  also 
apparent  that  there  are  certain  compensating  advantages 
to  be  gained  provided  Latin  Americans  profit  by  the  ex- 
perience of  other  lands,  which  will  enable  them  to  adopt 
many  preventive  measures. 

3.  The  Value  of  Preventive  Over  Remedial  Social  En- 
deavor. 

When  the  industrial  revolution  began  in  Great  Britain 
it  was  impossible  to  foresee  results  which  are  now  per- 
fectly apparent.  For  instance,  Britons  could  not  in 
advance  appreciate  the  fact  that  child  labor  would  ruin 
a generation.  Sixty-five  or  seventy  years  ago  proper 
legislation  would  have  prevented  the  multiform  evils  of 
overcrowding  in  New  York  City  and  would  have  made 
the  tenement  house  system  of  that  city  impossible,  but  no 
legislature  foresaw  those  evils.  Now  they  do  not  have 
to  be  foreseen ; they  are  as  gross  and  palpable  as  a 
mountain.  Child  labor  and  overcrowding  represent  a class 
of  social  evils  already  existing  in  certain  Latin-American 
cities.  These  evils  are  sure  to  attend  the  industrial  revo- 
lution wherever  this  spreads  unless  they  are  intentionally 
and  intelligently  prevented.  They  sprang  originally  from 
ignorance ; they  are  perpetuated  by  cupidity.  A later 
generation,  or  another  nation,  may  learn  gratuitously  the 
character  of  those  evils*  and  it  is  culpaWe  folly  not  to 
take  effective  measures  for  their  prevention  before  human 
selfishness  has  been  enlisted  for  their  defense  and  perpet- 
uation. If  action  relative  to  child  labor  is  postponed  un- 
til this  evil  becomes  well  rooted,  every  manufacturer  who 
gains  economic  advantage  by  it,  and  every  parent  who  is 
ignorant  enough  or  selfish  enough  to  profit  by  it,  will 
help  to  make  the  uprooting  of  the  evil  more  difficult.  In 
like  manner,  every  investment  in  unsanitary  tenements 
means  opposition  to  tenement  house  reform.  In  New 
York  City  there  are  hundreds  of  millions  of  such  dollars, 
and  so  subtle  and  powerful  is  their  influence  that  eternal 
vigilance  is  the  price  of  preserving  intact  the  building 
laws  for  the  protection  of  the  people.  It  is  evident  that 

48 

preventive  effort  which  will  presumably  have  to  contend 
only  against  indifference  will  accomplish  much  more  than 
remedial  endeavor  which  will  probably  have  to  struggle 
against  a selfish  and  powerful  opposition. 

Of  course  it  is  those  who  have  seen  and  felt  these 
social  evils  rather  than  those  who  have  never  witnessed 
them  who  must  be  expected  to  raise  a warning  against 
them.  It  is  evident,  therefore,  that  those  in  other  parts 
of  the  world  who  have  had  actual  observation  of  the  good 
and  bad  results  of  the  social  revolution  and  have  learned 
something  of  the  legislation  which  most  effectively  con- 
serves the  one  and  overcomes  the  other,  owe  it  to  the 
republics  in  Latin  America  to  give  them  the  benefit  of 
knowledge  learned  by  hard  experience. 

4.  The  Religious  Value  of  Social  Serince. 

The  most  encouraging  sign  of  the  times  is  the  fact  that 
for  a generation  there  has  been  quietly  taking  place  a re- 
vival of  the  Christianity  of  Christ,  a true  understanding 
of  His  message  of  the  Kingdom,  and  an  apprehension  of 
the  social  laws  of  love,  service  and  sacrifice,  by  which  ii 
is  governed,  and  by  increasing  obedience  to  which  it  will 
increasingly  come.  With  this  new  light  which  has  broken 
forth  from  the  Word  of  God  to  meet  the  new  social  needs 
of  the  new  civilization,  missionaries  and  ministers  of  the 
gospel  everywhere  are  discovering  that  it  is  their  busi- 
ness not  only  to  win  individual  souls  to  Christ,  but  to 
create  a Christian  civilization,  and  it  has  been  conspicu- 
ously demonstrated  at  home  and  abroad  that  social  work 
is  as  helpful  to  the  one  as  it  is  essential  to  the  other. 
Such  work,  however,  has  often  originated  in  the  des- 
perate needs  created  by  famine,  flood,  pestilence  or  pov- 
erty rather  than  in  a comprehensive  study  of  the  prob- 
lem of  human  well-being,  and  in  a perception  of  the  rela- 
tion of  social  progress  to  the  coming  of  God’s  kingdom 
in  the  earth.  The  time  is  now  ripe  to  take  the  broad 
view  of  missionary  effort  and  to  adapt  methods  accord- 
ingly: 

It  is  evident  that  a large  proportion  of  the  missionaries 
and  Christian  workers  in  Latin  America  takes  this  broader 
view,  which  marks  a return  to  the  aims  and  methods  of 
the  Christianity  of  Christ.  A correspondent  says : 
“The  community  life  requires  special  study.  It  is  very  im- 


Latin  America  should 
be  warned  against 
them 


Social  service  appro- 
priate to  mission 
work 


As  many  experienced 
missionaries  testify 


49 


Especially  regarding 
its  influence  on 
public  sentiment 


portant  that  the  preacher  should  get  in  real  touch  with  the 
life  of  the  community.  He  must  be  one  of  the  people. 
He  must  not  only  understand  their  problems,  but  he 
must  feel  these  problems  and  take  a lively  interest  in 
them.  There  are  many  reforms  that  have  to  be  started. 
He  must  have  the  highest  Christian  ideals  elaborated 
in  practical  modern  ways.  He  must  be  familiar  with  the 
various  ethical  doctrines,  and  also  with  political  and  so- 
cial problems.”  Again,  the  same  writer  says:  “Institu- 
tional and  social  service  work  is  very  important  in  Latin 
America.  We  may  suggest  the  establishment  of  reading 
and  lecture  rooms,  to  which  people  may  come  to  read 
periodicals,  books  and  pamphlets,  and  to  hear  lectures 
on  general  subjects  entirely  separate  from  distinctly  re- 
ligious work.  A lecture  room  away  from  the  church  or 
the  chapel  will  attract  a great  many  persons  who  will 
not  go  to  hear  a sermon.  By  means  of  lectures  on  so- 
ciological problems  we  may  give  them  to  understand  that 
the  task  of  the  church  is  to  help  the  community  by  giv- 
ing assistance  in  the  knowledge  required  to  solve  prac- 
tical problems.  In  those  lecture  rooms  we  may  organize 
study  classes  or  societies  for  debate,  or  any  other  kind 
of  organization  in  which  systematic  work  may  be  done. 
The  young  people’s  societies,  through  their  literary  de- 
partments, have  undertaken  this  work  in  several  places 
in  Mexico  so  successfully  that  the  ordinary  monthly 
meetings  of  the  department  have  been  attended  by  hun- 
dreds of  people  who  would  never  come  to  any  of  the 
church  services.” 

Dr.  G.  B.  Winton  says : “Saving  individual  men  will 
soon  begin  to  raise  the  spiritual  temperature  of  whole 
peoples.  But  evangelical  public  sentiment  will  also  begin 
to  operate.  Many  Latin-American  countries  so  far  have 
scarcely  anything  that  can  be  described  as  public  senti- 
ment. There  are  no  intellectual  currents  that  flow  from 
community  to  community.  The  Roman  Church  once  fur- 
nished such  a bond,  but  for  a long  time  now  it  has  ceased 
to  be  an  appreciable  intellectual  force.  Its  ministers  no 
longer  preach,  except  at  rare  intervals.  The  people  are 
taught  the  catechism  and  the  litany  of  the  saints,  but  not 
much  else.  But  the  gospel  will  make  public  sentiment. 
It  boldly  stirs  the  sluggish  lees  of  men’s  thoughts,  and 
takes  the  risk  of  any  ferment  that  may  follow.  It  is  it- 


50 


self  both  a ferment  and  a tonic.  It  makes  men  think  and 
helps  them  to  think  aright. 

“The  generation  of  Christian  men,  educated  in  evan- 
gelical schools,  which  will  soon  furnish  the  leaders  for 
the  political  life  of  Mexico,  will  supply  men  who  are 
real  patriots,  unselfish  because  Christians,  putting  the 
good  of  the  country  before  any  personal  interest  what- 
ever. In  the  same  way  the  period  of  a generation  or  two 
given  to  instructing  the  poor  and  helpless  will  bring  to 
them  the  magic  gift  of  letters.  When  they  can  read, 
they  will  demand  a press.  With  a press  they  will  achieve 
community  of  sentiment  and  of  action.  If  the  people  are 
to  be  sovereign — and  so  enamored  of  republicanism  are 
all  these  nations  that  they  will  hear  of  nothing  else — 
then  the'  sovereign  people  must  be  trained  for  their  duties. 
Minds  must  be  enlightened,  spirits  chastened,  morals 
purified.  This  is  the  function  of  the  gospel  itself,  the 
most  potent,  democratizing  influence  known  among  men. 
It  exalts  the  worth  and  the  dignity  of  the  individual  till 
he  comes  to  have  self-respect,  and  to  demand  respect 
from  others.  At  the  same  time  it  makes  him  his  broth- 
er’s keeper.  It  enforces  such  a spirit  of  consideration, 
of  justice  and  of  kindness  that  by  it  men  can  live  together 
in  peaceful  communities,  governing  themselves.” 

With  the  recovery  of  Christ’s  conception  of  the  king- 
dom of  Heaven  as  a saved  society  here  in  the  earth 
where  God’s  will  is  done  by  man  as  it  is  by  angels, 
methods  of  social  Christian  work  are  soon  adapted  to 
local  needs.  The  religious  value  of  such  work  has  been 
many  times  demonstrated  by  churches  in  the  worst  quar- 
ters of  cities  in  Europe  and  the  United  States.  Here 
and  there  in  Latin  America  alsi^  outstanding  examples 
of  institutional  work  are  to  be  found,  such  as  the  Peo- 
ple’s Central  Institute  of  the  Southern  Methodist  Mis- 
sion at  Rio  de  Janeiro.  One  of  our  correspondents  thus 
outlines  its  work:  “A  combined  downtown  institutional 
forward  movement  to  reach  the  masses  in  the  commer- 
cial and  business  center  and  the  extensive  slum  district 
and  the  seafaring  classes  of  the  port  of  Rio  de  Janeiro,  a 
city  of  nearly  a million  inhabitants,  (i)  Department  of 
evangelization  and  religious  instruction;  preaching,  gos- 
pel meetings,  Bible  classes,  Sunday  school,  Bible  reading, 
tract  distribution,  etc.  (2)  Department  of  elementary 

51 


The  religious  value  of 
social  service  finds 
illustration 


At  Rio  de  Janeiro 


And  at  Piedras 
Negras,  Mexico 


and  practical  education : kindergarten,  day  and  night 
schools,  classes  in  the  practical  arts  of  cooking,  house- 
keeping, sewing,  first  aid  to  the  injured,  typewriting,  etc. 
(3)  Department  of  physical  training:  (a)  classes  for 
young  men  and  boys,  young  women  and  girls  in  physical 
culture;  (b)  gymnastics  and  indoor  games;  (c)  open-air 
playgrounds.  (4)  Department  of  charity  and  help:  medi- 
cal consultations,  clinic  and  dispensary,  visitations  and 
personal  ministry  to  the  sick  and  neglected.  (5)  Depart- 
ment of  recreation  and  amusement : festivals,  lantern 
shows,  popular  lectures,  social  gatherings  and  picnics. 
(6)  Department  of  employment:  a bureau  whose  object 
is  to  bring  those  in  need  of  employment  into  touch  with 
employers.  (7)  Department  for  seamen:  preaching  and 
gospel  service  in  the  hall  and  on  board  ship,  reading,  cor- 
respondence and  game  rooms,  distribution  of  literature, 
visitation  of  the  sick  in  the  hospitals  and  on  board  ship, 
board  and  lodging,  and  care  for  the  general  spiritual,  in- 
tellectual, social  and  physcal  welfare  of  sailors.” 

The  People’s  Institute,  of  Piedras  Negras,  Mexico, 
under  the  mission  Board  of  the  Disciples  of  Christ,  has 
attracted  wide  attention  among  educators,  government 
officials  and  private  citizens  alike.  It  is  the  outgrowth 
of  a small  reading-room.  The  discussion  of  public  is- 
sues in  the  reading-room  called  forth  a series  of  public 
conferences  on  civics  and  morals  at  the  municipal  theatre 
which  aroused  so  much  interest  and  enthusiasm  that  the 
demand  was  imperative  for  an  expansion  of  the  work 
and  for  a permanent  home  for  the  new  enterprise.  Funds 
were  raised  by  popular  subscription  from  philanthropic 
residents  on  both  sides  of  the  Rio  Grande  for  the  erec- 
tion of  the  present  splendid  building.  It  was  organized 
especially  for  the  purpose  of  seeking  a point  of  contact 
with  the  higher  classes,  who  could  never  be  persuaded 
to  attend  religious  meetings.  The  methods  used  were 
those  which  would  interpret  Christ’s  message  as  a force 
to  uplift  the  community  and  national  life,  rather  than  to 
bring  direct  pressure  on  individuals  to  join  the  church. 
The  dedication  of  the  building  was  made  an  official  act  by 
the  government,  which  often  holds  patriotic  meetings  in 
the  auditorium.  Other  public  and  private  organizations 
often  use  the  rooms  for  their  meetings  also.  Much  of 
the  success  of  the  work  is  due  to  the  active  cooperation 


52 


of  the  public  school  teachers,  who  in  a large  measure  have 
been  used  to  head  the  varied  activities.  The  Institute 
combines  the  work  of  the  social  settlement,  the  public 
library,  the  charity  organization  society,  the  society  for 
the  prevention  of  cruelty  to  animals,  and  all  the  other 
benevolent,  educational  and  reform  organizations  of  the 
ordinary  city  in  the  United  States. 

One  of  the  most  interesting  features  of  the  Institute 
is  a Sunday  morning  meeting,  generally  attended  by  peo- 
ple who  would  never  think  of  attending  an  ordinary  evan- 
gelical preaching  service.  A topic  is  chosen,  and  some 
government  official  or  other  prominent  citizen,  known  for 
his  high  moral  character,  is  asked  to  lead  the  discussion, 
which  is  afterward  thrown  open  to  all  present.  The 
frankest  discussion  is  urged  and  secured.  The  director 
always  presides  and  closes  with  his  own  presentation, 
showing  the  bearing  of  Christian  teaching  on  the  problem. 
Thus  an  opportunity  is  found  to  present  the  claims  of 
Christianity  to  those  who  had  ceased  to  think  of  it  as  of 
any  practical  value  to  them.  These  meetings  and  those 
of  a debating  club  have  often  aroused  interest  and  started 
movements  for  the  betterment  of  community  life,  which 
have  afterward  been  taken  over  by  the  government  or 
other  organizations. 

Night  classes  in  fifteen  different  subjects  are  conducted 
for  young  men  and  women.  As  many  as  one  hundred  and 
forty  have  been  enrolled  at  one  time.  During  the  school 
year  conferences  are  held  for  the  public  school  teachers. 
The  director  of  the  government  schools  of  the  district 
is  on  the  faculty  of  the  Institute,  thus  helping  to  cor- 
relate its  educational  work  with  that  of  the  public  sys- 
tem. 

This  work  seems  to  offer  an  approach  to  the  upper  com- 
mercial and  official  classes  who  have  so  long  been  indif- 
ferent under  the  older  methods  which  seemed  to  appeal 
only  to  the  humbler  classes  and  those  who  could  be 
aroused  to  the  ambition  for  a better  education  than  was 
afforded  by  the  native  schools.  In  this  respect  the  Pied- 
ras  Negras  work  differs  from  most  social  institutional 
work,  which  aims  at  the  lower  grades  of  society,  trying 
to  elevate  their  ideals  and  environment.  But  here  the 
attraction  of  modernized  social  and  intellectual  oppor- 
tunities drew  from  their  aloofness  those  who  had  hither- 


Where  rrany  listen  to 
evangelical  teaching 
who  will  not  enter 
a church 


All  classes  of  the 
population  being 
reached 


53 


Social  service  pre- 
pares the  way  for 
the  gospel  message 


By  illustrating  the 
spirit  of  disinterested 
love 


to  considered  themselves  above  the  social  scale  of  the 
native  evangelical  membership. 

Social  service  indirectly  contributes  to  individual  salva- 
tion by  preparing  the  way  for  the  gospel  message. 

Two  things  are  necessary  in  order  to  convert  the 
world  to  Christ.  One  is  Christian  truth,  the  other  is  the 
Christian  spirit,  and  it  is  the  spirit  which  vitalizes.  A 
body  of  Christian  truth  without  the  Christian  spirit  is  as 
powerless  and  dead  as  a human  body  without  the  soul. 
There  are  multitudes  in  the  world,  and  especially  in  Chris- 
tendom, who  have  been  taught  more  or  less  in  the  truths 
of  Christianity,  but  who  have  been  mistaught  as  to  the 
spirit  of  Christianity.  That  spirit  is  the  spirit  of  disin- 
terested love.  Such  love  is  the  very  essence  of  our  re- 
ligion because  it  is  the  very  essence  of  God,  of  whom 
Christianity  is  a revelation.  Now  the  world  at  large  does 
not  believe  in  disinterested  love.  There  is  every  reason 
why  men  believe  in  selfishness ; but  why  should  they  be- 
lieve in  a love  they  have  never  experienced,  and  rarely, 
if  ever,  witnessed?  This  is  the  real,  practical  atheism  of 
the  world.  As  long  as  men  do  not  believe  in  disinterested 
love,  they  cannot  believe  in  God,  who  is  disinterested  love. 
As  long  as  such  love  is  unreal  to  men,  God  is  unreal  to 
them.  Non-Christians  and  professed  Christians  meet  one 
another  in  the  daily  contacts  of  business,  but  even  Chris- 
tian men  make  no  profession  that  their  business  is  dis- 
interested. With  them  as  with  others,  “business  is  busi- 
ness." Thus  there  are  great  multitudes  in  so-called  Chris- 
tion  lands  for  whom  Christian  truth  has  been  devitalized, 
and  its  proclamation  made  powerless. 

The  principal  contacts  between  Christendom  and  non- 
Christendom  have  been  commerce,  diplomacy  and  war, 
and  disinterested  love  is  not  commonly  recognized  as  the 
controlling  motive  of  traders,  governments  or  armies. 
Few,  indeed,  are  the  pagan  peoples  in  the  world  to  whom 
the  great  war  has  not  given  another  superfluous  demon- 
stration that  “Christian”  nations  do  not  love  one  another. 
Millions  are  feeling,  and  not  a few  have  definitely  for- 
mulated the  thought,  that  somehow  this  war  is  a nega- 
tion of  the  Christianity  of  Europe.  A prominent  Japanese, 
Dr.  K.  Ibuka,  chosen  to  represent  the  Federated  Churches 
of  Japan,  said  when  welcoming  the  Christian  embassy  re- 
cently sent  to  that  country  by  the  Federal  Council  of 


54 


the  Churches  of  Christ  in  America : “Men  to-day  are 
standing,  with  bated  breath,  bewildered  at  the  spectacle 
of  the  gigantic  struggle  going  on  in  Europe.  For  half 
a century  or  so  the  newly  awakened  East  has  looked  up 
to  the  civilization  of  the  West  as  the  highest  type  of 
civilization  the  world  has  ever  known.  But  it  is  now 
trembling  in  the  balance.  . . . The  civilization  of 

Europe  has  been  pointed  to  in  the  East  as  preeminently 
Christian,  and  men  are  asking  us  Christians,  ‘Where  is 
your  God?’  Where  is  the  kingdom  of  God  which  you 
proclaim  as  the  supreme  aim  of  life?  Where  is  the  broth- 
erhood of  man  so  often  on  your  lips?  What  is  the 
real  value  of  Christianity  to  the  world?  Do  not  Chris- 
tian philosophers  and  theologians  themselves  admit  that, 
after  all,  might  is  right  ?”  These  taunts  are  not  new,  but 
they  have  been  newly  barbed  and  feathered,  and  find  the 
mark  as  never  before. 

To  what  purpose  do  we  reiterate  yet  again  that  the 
Christian’ life  means  love  to  God  and  man?  Such  words 
are  empty  chafif  before  the  whirlwind  of  human  hate 
and  greed.  There  must  be  evidence  of  unselfishness. 
Where  shall  it  be  found,  if  not  in  sacrificial  service,  which 
is  the  natural  expression  of  love? 

Dr.  Grenfell,  of  Labrador,  says:  “When  you  set  out 
to  commend  your  gospel  to  men  who  don’t  want  it,  there 
is  only  one  way  to  go  about  it — to  do  something  for  them 
that  they’ll  understand.”  That  was  the  Master’s  method. 
The  nations  are  not  hungering  and  thirsting  for  righteous- 
ness, but  wherever  the  industrial  revolution  goes  many 
new  needs  appear  of  which  men  become  deeply  conscious. 
They  can  understand  poverty  and  sickness  when  the  com- 
ing of  machinery  throws  them  crut  of  employment.  Talk- 
ing to  them  about  righteousness  is  to  them  no  such  evi- 
dence of  your  love,  as  is  helping  them  with  respect  to 
some  felt  need.  Social  service  in  mission  fields  is  simply 
an  extension  of  the  principle  of  medical  missions,  which 
have  been  so  wonderfully  successful  in  overcoming  prej- 
udice and  in  preparing  the  way  for  Christian  truth. 

The  industrial  revolution  is  the  forerunner  of  new 
needs  and  of  new  social  problems  which,  left  unsolved, 
become  social  perils.  Social  service  which  aims  to  meet 
these  new  needs  is  the  forerunner  of  the  teaching  of 
Jesus,  which  alone  can  solve  these  problems  and  prevent 


And  by  actual  deeds 
of  sacrifice 


Social  service  demon- 
strates Christianity 
to  pten 


55 


It  also  helps  to  give 
each  man  a significant 
place  in  life 


And  fits  him  into 
the  Divine  scheme 


these  perils.  Social  service  appeals  to  men  because  they 
can  understand  it.  It  kindles  their  gratitude,  gains  their 
confidence,  wins  their  afifection,  and  in  some  measure  re- 
veals the  Christian  spirit.  It  is  not  a proclamation  of 
Christianity,  but  it  is  a demonstration  of  it — a demonstra- 
tion not  of  logic,  but  of  life.  Is  not  this  expression  of 
Christian  love  precisely  the  answer  needed  by  the  new 
skepticism  concerning  the  reality  of  Christian  love? 

There  are  two  distinct  methods  of  communicating  truth 
which  are  as  old  as  human  intercourse.  One  is  by  means 
of  words,  the  other  is  by  means  of  acts.  And  while  the 
word  is  the  primary  messenger,  the  act  not  only  “speaks 
louder”  than  the  word,  but  speaks  a universal  language. 
When  the  Christian  spirit  has  been  shown  in  ministering 
to  keenly  felt  wants,  when  it  has  been  manifested  in  self- 
denying  service,  then  the  spoken  word  of  Christian  truth 
will  have  its  rightful  power. 

Social  service  directly  contributes  to  social  salvation 
by  helping  to  rectify  relations  between  man  and  man.  In 
an  address  made  several  years  ago  President  Wilson  said : 
“We  are  in  the  presence  of  the  absolute  necessity  of  a 
spiritual  coordination  of  the  masses  of  knowledge  which 
we  have  piled  up  and  which  we  have  partially  explained, 
and  the  whole  world  waits  for  that  vast  task  of  intel- 
lectual mediation  to  be  performed.”  Science  is  classify- 
ing the  new  knowledge,  and  gradually  coordinating  its 
truths,  but  science  does  not  concern  itself  with  spiritual 
meanings  and  ultimate  purposes.  President  Wilson  con- 
tinued in  the  same  address : “The  business  of  the  Chris- 
tian Church,  of  the  Christian  ministry,  is  to  show  the 
spiritual  relations  of  men  to  the  great  world  process, 
whether  they  be  physical  or  spiritual.  It  is  nothing  less 
than  to  show  the  plan  of  life,  and  men’s  relations  to  the 
plan  of  life.”  This  is  precisely  what  social  Christianity 
undertakes  to  do. 

Immanuel  Kant,  regarded  as  the  greatest  philosopher 
produced  by  Christendom,  recognized  a universal  plan 
in  nature  and  history  by  which  the  human  race  would 
fulfil  its  destiny  here  in  the  earth  in  a kingdom  of  “the 
good,”  which  he  called  in  Scriptural  phrase,  the  “king- 
dom of  God.”  Since  Kant’s  time  the  highest  theological 
thinking  has  made  dominant  what  has  been  called  a 
“moral  teleology” — the  teaching  that  the  world  exists  for 

56 


a moral  purpose  to  which  the  spiritual  and  the  physical 
are  alike  subservient.  In  recent  years  this  conception 
has  reasserted  itself  with  new  vigor  and  with  wider  ac- 
ceptance, and  men  are  beginning  to  recognize  the  cosmic 
designs  of  God  in  Jesus’  teaching  concerning  the  coming 
of  the  kingdom  of  Heaven  here  in  the  earth. 

This  interpretation  of  Christianity  fits  the  peculiar 
needs  of  our  times  as  the  ocean  fits  the  shore,  and  makes 
social  service  inspired  by  Christian  love  the  intelligent 
application  of  the  social  laws  of  Jesus  to  human  relation- 
ships. Those  laws  perfectly  obeyed  would  be  God’s  will 
done  on  earth  as  it  is  in  heaven — the  kingdom  fully  come. 


57 


CHAPTER  V 


Latin  American 
“intellectuals”  are 
hostile,  indifferent, 
or  agnostic  as  regards 
Christian  truth 


THE  CHRISTIAN  MESSAGE  AND  THE 
EDUCATED  CLASSES 

I.  The  Present  Attitude  of  the  Educated  Classes  of 
Latin  America  Toward  Christianity. 

It  is  the  unanimous  testimony  alike  of  natives,  foreign 
observers  and  evangelical  ministers  that  among  the  edu- 
cated classes  of  the  Latin-American  republics  there  is 
widespread  hostility  to  the  Christian  faith.  In  some  of 
these  countries  there  are  small  groups  who  remain  faith- 
ful to  the  teaching  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  and 
throughout  them  all  individuals  are  to  be  found  who  be- 
lieve in  God  and  in  His  supreme  revelation  through 
Christ.  But  in  general  it  is  to  be  said  that  defection 
from  the  Roman  Church  implies,  among  the  “intellec- 
tuals,” either  complete  indifference  to  the  whole  subject 
of  the  spiritual  life  of  man  or  the  profession  of  some 
phase  of  philosophy  which  seems  to  justify  them  in  re- 
jecting the  claims  and  authority  of  the  Christian  religion 
in  any  form.  From  the  time  of  the  revolutions  in  these 
countries  the  minds  of  the  leaders  have  been  concentrated 
on  the  attempt  to  discover  intellectual  bases  for  society 
and  the  secret  of  governmental  authority  and  method, 
apart  from  the  teaching  of  the  only^orm  of  Christianity 
which  they  know  at  first  hand  and  which  they  have  almost 
unanimously  rejected.  If  here  and  there  we  find  those 
who  had  deeper  insight  into  the  facts,  and  who,  like 
Montalvo  of  Ecuador,  held  that  “a  sane  and  pure  de- 
mocracy has  need  of  Jesus  Christ,”*  those  voices  are  all 

‘F.  Garcia  Calderon,  “Latin  America:  Its  Rise  and  Pro- 
gress,” 240. 

58 


too  rare.  The  vast  majority  are  political  idealists.  They 
have  sought  through  a philosophy  of  human  nature  and 
history  to  discover  the  true  principles  on  which  an  or- 
dered society  could  be  established.  Naturally,  in  the 
earlier  period  many  of  them  looked  on  the  French  en- 
cyclopedists as  the  true  parents  of  that  democracy  which 
they  accepted  as  the  only  substitute  for  the  autocratic 
rule  of  Spain  and  Portugal.  And  from  Rousseau,  Vol- 
taire and  their  confreres  they  sought  their  moral,  social 
and  political  inspiration  and  guidance.  But  that  was  a 
comparatively  brief  phase.  The  rapid  spread  of  the  doc- 
trine of  evolution  and  the  discovery  that  the  encyclo- 
pedists were  pure  dogmatists,  whose  doctrines  were  un- 
supported by  history,  led  them  to  other  and  later  systems 
of  thought.  The  great  names  which  seem  to  have  ruled 
the  minds  of  Latin  America  for  the  last  two  generations 
are  those  of  Auguste  Comte,  with  his  system  of  positive 
philosophy,  Herbert  Spencer  with  his  majestic  and  im- 
posing philosophy  of  mechanistic  evolution,  and  Jeremy 
Bentham,  whose  doctrine  of  utilitarianism  as  applied  to 
legislation  and  governmental  ideals  exercised  great  in- 
fluence. As  those  thinkers  systematically  treat  positive 
Christianity,  and  even  the  active  belief  in  God,  as  irrele- 
vent  to  the  study  of  mankind  and  the  ordering  of  society, 
their  many  followers  in  Latin  America  have  naturally 
treated  the  whole  subject  of  religion  as  passe.  Many  of 
their  rulers  and  of  the  instructors  of  youth  in  their  uni- 
versities have  either  ignored  religion  entirely,  except  in 
anticatholic  legislation,  or  have  definitely  attacked  its 
claims  to  intellectual  respect  or  official  recognition. 

Naturally,  therefore,  we  are  presented  with  a condition 
almost  unique  in  the  modern  world,  where  religion  is 
treated  consistently  as  a superstition  of  the  past  which  in 
none  of  its  forms  is  worthy  of  the  attention  of  free  and 
educated  men.  If  we  are  told  that  here  and  there  circles 
are  being  formed  and  are  growing  in  number  and  power 
which  concern  themselves  seriouslv  with  such  movements 
as  spiritism  and  theosophy,  this  may  be  treated  partly 
as  a witness  to  the  survival  of  the  religious  instinct  among 
their  professors,  partly  as  a proof  that  the  merely  secu- 
lar view  of  life  is  beginning  to  reveal  its  poverty  and 
shallowness. 

On  the  other  hand,  there  seems  to  be  no  evidence  that 


Their  political 
idealism  rests  upon  an 
irreligious  philosophy 


They  class  religi  n 
as  a superstition 


The  Roman  Church 
helplets  to  meet 
this  situation 


The  task  of  the 
evangelical 
churches  very 
difficult 


The  evangelical 
preacher  or  teacher 
must  emphasize  the 
reality  and  power  of 
Christian  experience 


the  leaders  of  the  Roman  Church  are  able  to  withstand 
this  mighty  flood  of  agnosticism.  The  mere  non  licet  of 
the  late  pope’s  attack  upon  modernism  can  have  no  effect 
with  a situation  like  this.  The  works  of  Roman  Catholic 
apologists  in  Europe  seem  to  have  a very  limited  circula- 
tion in  Latin  America,  and  tl^  education  of  priests  does 
not  fit  them  to  deal  with  the  problems  of  agnosticism  from 
the  modern  standpoint. 

2.  The  Task  of  Evangelical  Churches. 

It  is  obvious,  of  course,  that  the  evangelical  Churches 
cannot  undertake  to  counteract  directly  the  institutional 
life  which  has  produced  or  which  nourishes  the  anti- 
religious  attitude  of  the  governments  and  universities  of 
Latin  America.  Nor  can  they  send  men  whose  task  shall 
be  merely  that  of  substituting  one  philosophy  for  another. 
Their  influence  upon  the  educated  classes  of  these  repub- 
lics must  arise  from  the  effort  of  highly  trained  and  de- 
voted Christian  men  to  bring  men  of  education  to  Christ. 
We  know  how  difficult  that  task  is  in  all  parts  of  the 
world.  But  in  most  Christian  lands  the  task  is  made  easier 
by  the  presence,  in  their  best  educated  circles,  of  large 
numbers  who  are  avowedly  Christians  in  conviction  and 
spirit.  In  Latin  America  it  is  the  absence  of  any  such 
nucleus,  and  the  fact  that  so  many  have  rejected  Chris- 
tianity or  are  indifferent  to  its  claims,  which  constitutes 
the  peculiar  problem. 

In  the  first  place,  then,  we  must  emphasize  the  fact 
that  work  among  the  intellectuals  has  the  very  same  object 
as  that  among  the  uneducated,  the  bringing  of  human 
souls  one  by  one  into  the  fellowship  of  God  through  faith 
in  Jesus  Christ.  The  definiteness,  power  and  glory  of  a 
personal  life  in  God  must  be  the  one  supreme  message 
of  the  Christian  teacher  to  them  as  to  all  other  classes. 
The  more  directly  he  makes  that  fact  the  center  and 
substance  of  his  whole  message,  the  more  force  will  be 
exercised  by  his  ability  to  meet  the  stress  of  debate  based 
upon  philosophical  and  historical  argument  against  the 
Christian  faith.  In  all  parts  of  the  world  it  is  the  sub- 
stantial power  of  a personal  experience  of  Christ  and  of 
God  in  Christ  which  attracts  most  earnest  attention  to 
the  intellectual  aspects  of  the  whole  matter.  Without 
that  compelling  energy  of  active  life  all  dispute  about 

6o 


the  philosophy  that  is  consistent  or  inconsistent  with 
Christianity  appears  as  a mere  abstract  afifair,  a mere 
choice  of  school  flags,  or  an  unmoral  assent  to  proposi-# 
tions  that  do  not  lay  bare  the  roots  of  our  being  in  God. 

Further,  it  must  be  remembered  that  the  missionary  open  confession 
must  seek  to  bring  his  educated  converts  to  an  open  service 

confession  of  their  faith  and  into  Christian  service.  With- 
out such  open  confession  and  an  accompanying  expres- 
sion of  the  religious  life  through  self-denying  activities, 
these  converts  will  lose  the  steadying  of  character  that 
comes  through  witness-bearing,  and  the  power  of  the  self 
to  function  through  service  is  likely  to  suffer  atrophy. 

These  are  commonplaces  of  the  religious  life  as  the  evan- 
gelical understands  it.  But  just  here  is  one  of  the  chief 
difficulties  to  be  encountered,  for  the  almost  universal 
testimony  laid  before  us  proves  that  many  of  the  upper 
circles  are  deterred  at  the  very  start  from  open  connec- 
tion with  the  evangelical  Communions  because  these  are 
so  largely  composed  of  the  poor  and  the  uncultured.  The 
fear  of  losing  caste  is  apparently  as  great  as  among  the 
higher  castes  of  India.  It  is  here  that  strong  intellectual 
leadership  is  needed  to  support  the  spiritual  appeal,  to 
nourish  and  fortify  the  spiritual  impulse  which  has  been 
awakened. 

With  these  thoughts  before  us  we  must  now  describe  avoiding  themes 
the  main  topics  on  which  the  evangelical  teacher  who  is 
to  labor  persuasively  and  with  authority  among  the  edu- 
cated classes  should  be  as  thoroughly  equipped  as  possible. 

(i)  The  Doctrine  of  Evolution.  It  is  evident  that  Evolution  rnost 
the  thinking  world  of  Latin  America  is  largely  controlled  to^be  o^o"ed"w'’°' 
by  the  idea  of  evolution.  The  form  in  which  it  has  ''^''eaied  religion 
mainly  been  presented  and  gained  its  hold  is  that  which 
it  has  taken  in  the  system  of  Herbert  Spencer,  based 
upon  the  doctrine  of  the  persistence  of  force  and  the 
Darwinian  theory  of  natural  selection.  For  many  the 
Spencerian  philosophy  has  coalesced  with  the  more  hu- 
manitarian enthusiasm  of  Auguste  Comte,  whose  phil- 
osophy of  positivism  has  at  once  captured  their  demo- 
cratic convictions  and  confirmed  their  rejection  of  a su- 
pernatural religion.  Thus  they  find  themselves  buttressed, 
by  an  interpretation  of  evolution  which  claims  to  be 
scientific  and  a view  of  history  which  claims  to  be  most 
human,  in  an  attitude  of  defiance  toward  revealed  re- 


61 


To  this  error  must 
be  opposed  the  true 
theistic  conception 


ligion.  In  their  search  for  political  ideals  they  assume 
^that  science  must  have  the  last  and  decisive  word.  Hence 
the  more  recent  concentration  on  psychology  and  sociol- 
ogy among  their  university  leaders  and  political  theorists 
does  not  imply  any  deeper  grasp  of  the  spiritual  nature 
of  man  and  the  absolute  nature  of  moral  law.  Rather 
does  their  interest  in  these  new  fields  of  thought  proceed 
upon  the  basis  of  that  evolutionism  and  agnosticism 
which  the  earlier  generation  adopted  as  the  final  truth 
for  the  modern  scholar  and  thinker. 

It  is  evident  that  if  the  evangelical  form  of  Chris- 
tianity is  to  be  made  real  to  men  who-  have  been  thus 
trained  for  nearly  three  generations,  a mere  blunt  and 
ignorant  denial  of  the  doctrine  of  evolution  or  a super- 
ficial and  insipid  treatment  of  the  philosophy  of  agnosti- 
cism will  avail  nothing.  The  true  method  will  be  pur- 
sued more  wisely  by  the  man  who  knows  that  there  is 
another  view  of  evolution  than  that  of  Herbert  Spen- 
cer. There  is  a kind  of  tyranny  which  the  earlier  and 
coarser  view  of  evolution  has  exercised  over  the  minds 
of  a whole  generation  of  men.  It  has  been  assumed  that 
the  principle  of  evolution  means  that  the  earlier  periods 
of  the  history  of  our  world  explain  the  later,  that  the 
simpler  conditions  and  forms  of  existence  produced  the 
more  complex,  that  the  lower  phenom.ena  are  the  causes 
of  the  higher.  The  idea  of  order  in  time  has  become 
confused  with  the  idea  of  causality.  Thus  mechanical 
principles  are  used  to  “explain”  the  facts  of  biology. 
Biology,  in  turn,  is  taken  as  the  key  to  psychology,  psy- 
chology to  sociology,  and  the  last  as  the  key  to  all  re- 
ligious phenomena.  This  easy  and  shallow  way  of  ex- 
plaining the  history  of  our  world  is  now  being  discred- 
ited steadily  by  the  most  representative  thinkers  of  Europe 
and  America.  It  is  hard,  however,  for  many  minds  to 
get  rid  of  its  tyranny  over  their  imagination.  The  con- 
ception that  the  evolutionary  history  of  nature  and  man 
in  our  little  world  reveals  the  gradual  enrichment  of  the 
field  of  reality  by  the  advent  of  successive  new  causes, 
which  come  from  sources,  or  a Source,  in  the  invisible  and 
spiritual  universe,  is  the  conception  which  the  Christian 
thinker  must  think  through  until  its  truth  has  filled  and 
freed  and  illumined  his  mind. 


62 


And  again,  our  Christian  apologist  must  remember 
that  agnosticism  was  promulgated  by  Kant,  Sir  William 
Hamilton,  Victor  Cousin  and  Dean  Mansel,  not  as  the 
destroyer  but  as  the  helpmeet  of  faith.  This  knowledge 
may  not  lead  him  to  adopt  agnosticism,  but  it  should 
lead  him  to  a deeper  study  of  the  whole  movement  on  its 
Christian  and  constructive  side.  For  this  purpose  he 
might  well  pay  some  attention  to  the  Ritschlian  move- 
ment and  its  significant  history  both  in  Germany  and  in 
the  English-speaking  world.  For  it  is  safe  to  say  that, 
though  Ritschlianism  has  not  produced  a commanding 
system  of  Christian  doctrine,  it  has  served  the  past  gen- 
eration as  a helpful  system  of  apologetic,  and  espe- 
cially so  among  the  intellectuals  of  Europe  and  North 
America.  And  yet  Ritschl  explicitly  and  elaborately 
founded  his  method  upon  a philosophical  agnosticism 
which  he  expounded  and  defended  with  great  conviction 
and  energy.  Thus,  like  a wise  strategist,  the  Christian 
teacher,  without  attempting  merely  to  substitute  one  dif- 
ficult philosophy  for  another,  may  turn  the  flank  of  the 
foe  by  showing  that  many  eminent  philosophical  agnos- 
tics have  been  convinced  and  earnest  Christian  believers. 

Let  this,  then,  be  the  task  of  the  man  who,  by  the 
writing  of  pamphlets,  the  delivery  of  lectures  and  the 
conduct  of  private  discussions  among  the  agnostics  of 
Latin  America,  seeks  to  win  educated  men  to  Christ.  He 
must  master  the  theory  of  evolution  in  its  Christian  in- 
terpretation and  the  doctrine  of  agnosticism.  For  this, 
the  literature,  even  in  English  alone,  is  vast  and  varied. 
The  works  of  Robert  Flint,  John  Fiske,  A.  J.  Balfour, 
William  James,  J.  Arthur  Thompson,  Romanes,  Oliver 
Lodge,  Kelvin,  Eddes,  Bergson  and  Josiah  Royce  are  a 
few  among  the  many  that  are  easily  available. 

(2)  Religion.  The  discussion  of  evolution  and  ag- 
nosticism involves  of  course  the  fundamental  problems 
connected  with  the  philosophy  of  theism.  But  it  is  said 
that  many  leaders  of  Latin-American  thought  who  do 
not  profess  to  be  atheists  adopt,  nevertheless,  the  form 
of  theism  known  as  deism.  That  is,  they  seem  to  ac- 
knowledge the  existence  of  a creative  arid  intelligent  will, 
without  which  nature  cannot  be  explained  as  a vast  but 
unified  and  orderly  process ; but  they  disclaim  the  idea 


And  the  fact  that 
true  agnosticism  does 
not  necessarily 
forbid  Christian 
belief 


The  one  who  defends 
the  Christian  stand- 
point must  know  his 
subject  thoroughly 


Some  religionists 
ignore  the  personality 
of  God 


63 


To  them  may  be 
presented  the 
scientific  conclusion 
that  religion  is 
indispensable  to 
humankind 


And  that  the 
unsatisfied  soul 
turns  to  superstition 


that  such  a being  has  definite  claims  on  individual  recog- 
nition. They  are  deists  who  disown  religion.  They 
imagine,  as  indeed  many  do  in  other  enlightened  lands, 
that  the  future  history  of  man,  based  on  economic  facts 
and  ethical  and  social  ideals,  can  reach  its  goal  without 
any  effort  on  man’s  part  to  enter  into  personal  com- 
munion with  the  Will  which  orders  all.  That  Will  works 
immanently,  it  is  said ; and,  so  far  as  our  knowledge  or 
responsive  action  is  concerned,  it  works  impersonally. 
There  are  many  who  shrink  from  avowing  themselves 
as  intellectually  atheists,  who  do  not  realize  that  the  deists 
who  do  not  seek  or  worship  God,  and  the  agnostics  who 
avoid  religion  on  the  ground  of  a certain  theory  of  knowl- 
edge, all  live  as  practical  atheists,  “having  no  hope  and 
without  God  in  the  world.” 

There  are  three  main  lines  of  attack  upon  this  position, 
recognized  in  modern  apologetic  literature.  The  first  of 
these  is  the  fruit  of  the  modern  study  of  religion  as  a 
whole.  It  is  found  that  religion  is  a normal  product 
and  activity  of  human  nature.  It  is  as  old  as  language, 
as  wide-spread  as  the  race  itself.  The  hunger  of  man 
for  communication  with  the  unseen  powers  that  control 
his  fortunes,  and  with  the  Divine  Source  of  the  soul’s 
life  is  irrepressible  and  is  increasingly  believed  to  be 
universal.  Irreligious  communities  are  not  superior  but 
inferior  to  their  fellow-men.  They  ar.e,  under  temporary 
and  unnatural  conditions,  stifling  the  true  tendency  of 
their  nature,  denying  to  themselves  the  highest  fruits  of 
their  existence  as  men.  As  John  Fiske,  the  first  great 
exponent  of  Herbert  Spencer  in  North  America,  asserted  : 
“Nature’s  eternal  lesson  is  the  everlasting  reality  of  re- 
ligion.” In  dealing  with  evolutionists  of  a certain  type 
his  argument  in  “Through  Nature  to  God”  should  be 
mastered  by  every  teacher  of  Christianity. 

There  is  abundant  proof  that  in  Latin  America,  as  in 
other  communities  where  the  message  of  Christianity  is 
rejected,  the  hunger  of  the  soul  for  religion  finds  expres- 
sion in  the  pursuit  of  spiritualism,  soothsaying,  theos- 
ophy and  other  such  phenomena.  The  loss  of  faith  in 
Christ  always  brings  the  demons  back  to  man’s  imagi- 
nation and  gives  them  power  over  his  heart.  As  the 
fountain  head  of  such  systems,  when  they  become  sys- 
tems, is  the  East  and  especially  India,  the  wise  herald 

64 


of  the  gospel  will  give  more  attention  to  their  history 
in  their  birthland.  For  this  purpose  no  book  will  serve 
better  than  Mr.  J.  N.  Farquhar’s  “Modern  Religious 
Movements  in  India” ; and  the  true  value  and  significance 
of  man’s  yearning  for  direct  contact  with  the  supernat- 
ural should  be  studied  in  Professor  E.  F.  Hocking’s  stiff 
but  rewarding  work  on  “The  Meaning  of  God  in  Human 
Experience.”  The  purely  superstitious  nature  and  im- 
moral tendencies  of  these  movements,  when  they  are 
taken  to  supplant  Christianity,  may  be  fully  and  should 
be  ruthlessly  exposed  in  written  and  spoken  word. 

The  second  method  of  appeal  should  be  based  on  man’s 
moral  needs.  To  some  minds  the  mystical  appeal  seems 
faint  and  unattractive,  especially  if  their  life  is  material- 
istic and  self-indulgent.  But  there  are  few  who,  when 
pressed  kindly  and  firmly,  do  not  acknowledge  the  need 
of  personal  moral  improvement.  If  God  exists,  then 
He  has  laid  down  laws  for  human  nature  and  social  in- 
tercourse which  are  as  definite,  real  and  irrevocable  as 
the  “fixed”  laws  of  nature.  No  consistent  and  intelli- 
gent evolutionist  is  in  a position  to  deny  that.  The  dif- 
ficulty is  to  get  the  individual  conscience  quickened  to 
speak  at  this  point.  Yet  this  must  be  done  if  the  deepest 
and  happiest  results  are  to  be  attained.  If  lying  and  lust, 
if  selfish  living  and  anger,  if  hatred  and  jealousy,  if 
greed  and  cruelty,  are  contrary  to  the  sacred  laws  of 
human  nature,  if  to  live  in  communion  with  God  is  a 
fundamental  law  of  our  human  experience  and  the  true 
ideal  which  stretches  into  the  unseen  and  the  eternal, 
who  can  contemplate  humanity  as  godless  and  sinful 
without  dismay  and  contrition? 

It  is  here  that  in  the  third  place  the  appeal  to  Christ 
and  His  gospel  must  be  made.  For  He  is  proclaimed 
from  the  beginning  and  always  as  the  One  from  and 
through  whom  man  receives  the  complete  forgiveness  of 
God,  the  power  to  live  the  ideal  moral  life,  the  sense  of 
immediate  and  permanent  contact  and  fellowship  with 
God,  the  Father.  It  is  vain  to  deny  that  this  experience 
is  real,  for  the  witness  to  its  reality  is  simply  incalculable 
in  the  variety  of  persons  and  conditions,  of  moral  situ- 
ations and  intellectual  equipment,  where  its  power  and 
actuality  are  established.  A man  may  choose  to  live 

65 


To  it  may  also  be 
opposed  the  universal 
moral  needs  of 
man 


And  finally,  the 
unchallengeable  fact 
of  a victorious  povvcj 
of  resistance 


Many  hold  that 
the  Bible  is  not  a 
Divine  book 


Let  them  comprehend 
the  historical  develop- 
ment of  Christianity’s 
complete  message 
of  salvation 


As  well  as  reasonable 
arguments  for  the 
authority  and 
trustworthiness  of 
the  Bible 


without  all  this,  but  he  can  never  prove  that  other  men 
have  not  received  this  power  and  entered  into  this  life  of 
God. 

(3)  Historical  Christianity — The  Bible.  The  argu- 
ment which  we  have  sketched  cannot  end  of  course  with- 
out entering  upon  a discussion  of  the  origin  of  Chris- 
tianity and  the  authority  of  the  Bible.  A missionary  to 
uneducated  heathen  has  the  right  to  go  with  the  Bible 
in  his  hand  and  assert  dogmatically:  “This  is  the  Word 
of  God,  and  I am  here  to  declare  the  message  which  it 
contains  for  you  and  from  Him.”  But  he  who  works 
among  people  of  western  education  cannot  act  in  that 
simple  way.  He  will  find  himself  driven  very  soon  to 
explain  and  defend  his  assertion  that  this  book  is  the 
Word  of  God.  He  will  be  confronted  by  many  men  and 
women  who  have  caught  at  least  the  echoes,  and  by 
some  who  know  the  substance,  of  the  modern  critical 
movement  in  Bible  study.  And  with  them  the  argument 
must  begin  further  back. 

Now  it  is  one  of  the  clearest  results  of  the  whole 
modern  historical  movement  that  the  study  of  the  rise 
of  Christianity  as  the  supreme  revelation  from  God 
and  the  study  of  the  literary  history  of  the  Bible  are 
intimately  bound  together.  The  Bible  can  be  used  as 
the  “Word  of  God”  because  it  contains  the  message  of 
redemption  and  the  offer  of  that  fellowship  with  God 
which  the  heart  of  humanity  was  created  to  hunger  after 
and  to  enjoy.  But  that  message  of  salvation,  when  de- 
livered fully  and  with  all  its  just  and  immediate  implica- 
tions concerning  God  and  man,  the  guilt  of  sin  and  its 
pardon,  the  infinite  fountains  of  divine  love  and  the  aton- 
ing death  of  Christ,  the  need  of  repentance  and  the  prin- 
ciple of  faith,  the  demand  for  obedience  to  the  laws  of 
personal  honor  and  of  social  morality,  the  offer  of  the 
Holy  Spirit — that  message  is  Christianity. 

It  would  be  out  of  place  to  attempt  here  an  outline  of 
the  argument  which  should  deal  with  the  rise  of  Chris- 
tianity. The  literature  is  so  great  that  it  would  baffle 
any  one  to  attempt  even  a brief  catalogue  of  relevant 
and  important  works  without  some  risk  of  misunder- 
standing. Sufflce  it  to  say,  that  in  the  bibliographies  to 
the  various  articles  in  Hastings’  “Dictionary  of  the 
Bible”  and  his  “Dictionary  of  Christ  and  the  Gospels,” 


66 


the  student  on  the  field  can  find  abundant  material  for  his 
purpose,  and  in  those  articles  themselves  constant  help 
in  his  effort  to  present  reasonable,  modern  and  con- 
structive arg-uments  for  the  authority  of  the  Bible,  and 
especially  of  the  New  Testament,  and  for  its  complete 
trustworthiness  concerning  the  person  and  work  of 
Christ,  the  nature  and  claims  of  the  gospel  of  the  grace 
of  Godd 

On  the  side  of  “method,”  it  is  clear  that  an  important 
work  could  be  done  by  the  establishment  in  the  chief  cen- 
ters of  Latin-American  civilization  of  libraries  which 
would  contain  the  best  works  of  modern  Christian 
scholarship,  works  which  are  representative  of  the  evan- 
gelical Churches  and  of  that  broad  fearless  research  into 
science,  history,  philosophy  and  theology  which  is  laying 
the  solid  foundations  of  faith  in  Christ  and  His  gospel 
for  the  modern  mind.  These  libraries  should  be  under 
the  control  of  competent,  earnest  scholars,  full  of  the 
evangelistic  spirit,  who  know  how  to  use  them  personally 
and  to  make  them  fully  available  for  all  educated  people 
with  whom  they  come  into  contact. 

It  ought  to  be  added  that  those  who  are  thus  equipped 
and  appointed  to  present  the  evangelical  faith  to  the 
educated  circles  of  Latin  America  will  always  seek  to  do 
so  in  the  language  of  to-day.  This  requires  not  only 
that  they  know  the  past  and  orthodox  mode  of  doc- 
trinal statement,  but  that  they  have  mastered  the  secret 
of  stating  the  Christian  truths  in  the  manner  which  makes 
them  real  for  the  psychologist  and  sociologist  of  our  own 
generation. 

(4)  The  Church.  The  rise  and  the  divine  authority  of 
Christianity  cannot  be  fully  discussed  without  raising  the 
whole  subject  of  the  nature,  history,  value  and  authority 
of  the  Church  of  Christ.  The  intellectuals  of  Latin 
America  are  said  to  have  revolted  from  the  Roman 
Church  and  to  regard  Protestantism  as  a poor  and  sec- 
tarian offshoot  from  it.  The  hatred  which  they  feel 
towards  what  they  regard  as  the  parent  becomes  contempt 
for  what  they  regard  as  its  rebellious  and  puny  off- 
spring. The  principal  answer  to  this  attitude  can  be 

' Dr.  Jose  Rodriguez,  recognizing  the  great  need  for  a modern 
history,  in  Portuguese,  of  the  origin  and  development  of  the 
Bible,  is  now  preparing  such  a work. 

67 


Such  (discussions 
would  justify 
t’*e  fstablishir ent 
of  libraries  on  religion 
in  chief  centers 


All  d iscussion  should 
be  upon  a thoroughly 
modern  basis 


Some  declare  that 
the  Church  is  no 
longer  worthy  of 
respect 


Answer  by  a strong 
church  life 


And  by  showing  that 
the  Church  is  true 
to  early  ideals 


And  that  the  Church 
amidst  all  its 
appsrent  diversity 
has  real  unity 


found  only  in  the  gradual  growth  of  strong  evangelical 
churches  where  Christianity  is  presented  as  the  power  of 
God  unto  salvation,  where  the  evangelical  type  of  sincere 
piety  is  worthily  realized,  where  its  effect  upon  personal 
character  and  its  issue  in  social  service  manifest  its 
full  dignity  and  divine  authority.  To  clothe  its  teach- 
ing with  the  beauty  of  holy  lives  and  to  manifest  it  in 
ardent  devotion  to  the  whole  good  of  humanity,  will  go 
further  than  all  scholastic  argumentation  to  win  admira- 
tion and  confidence. 

But  the  intellectual  side  cannot  here  be  ignored.  The 
evangelical  faith  must  be  presented  as  the  true  repre- 
sentative of  the  Apostolic  Church— the  true  creation  of 
the  Spirit  of  Christ.  To  do  this  by  forrtial  lectures,  by 
printed  pamphlets  and  books,  by  personal  discussion,  re- 
quires, if  it  is  to  be  done  convincingly,  a large  amount 
of  historical  knowledge,  doctrinal  insight  and  spiritual 
conviction.  The  principles  which  lie  at  the  foundation 
of  the  Church  in  New  Testament  times  must  be  deeply 
studied  and  clearly  expounded.  The  history  of  the  rise 
of  Romanism  must  be  investigated,  that  its  dangers  as 
well  as  its  truths,  and  its  additions  to  the  original  gospel 
alike  in  formal  doctrine,  in  ceremonial  and  in  supersti- 
tious practise,  may  be  discovered  and  set  forth. 

More  important  still,  though  involved  in  it,  is  the 
need  for  a thorough  knowledge  of  the  history  and  mean- 
ing of  the  Church  in  which  the  evangelical  preachers 
believe  and  in  whose  name  they  are  at  work  in  Latin 
America.  Here  there  is  room  and  clamant  need  for  a re- 
reading of  the  Protestant  history.  Why  did  all  these  di- 
visions arise?  Is  it  only  an  evil  spirit  that  has  given 
them  birth  ? How  is  it  then  that  they  all  produce  at  least 
in  some  measure,  and  many  in  a very  full  and  splendid 
measure,  the  fruits  of  the  Spirit  of  Christ?  The  Spirit 
which  produced  them  is  the  Spirit  of  freedom,  of  indi- 
vidualism, of  that  democracy  which  was  planted  at  the 
very  first  in  every  church  established  by  the  apostles 
of  Jesus  Christ.  The  same  spirit  which  made  the  Latin- 
American  countries  revolt  from  Spain  and  Portugal, 
which  made  them  prefer  republicanism  to  monarchy,  which 
made  them  seek  as  separate  nationalities  to  fulfil  their 
destiny  is  that  which  produced  the  divisions  of  the 
Protestant  world.  The  ideal  of  bare  and  formal  unity. 


68 


which  many  of  them  profess  to  admire  in  the  Church 
of  Rome,  is  hostile  to  the  whole  spirit  in  which  they  have 
been  trained  socially  and  politically.  The  unity  of  the 
Church  must  be  that  of  the  mind  and  the  spirit.  It  is  a 
fruit  rather  than  a root  of  life.  The  unity  in  which  the 
Churches  are  rooted  is  unseen  and  spiritual,  the  boughs 
and  branches  diverge,  but  the  tree  produces  the  one 
fruitage  of  a holy  life  in  God.  Even  though  much  sin 
has  been  at  work  in  the  production  of  their  divisions, 
just  as  much  sin  (e.  g.,  the  Inquisition)  served  to  pre- 
serve the  formal  unity  of  warring  parties  in  the  Roman 
Church,  nevertheless  it  is  becoming  clearer  every  day, 
and  the  Panama  Congress  is  a brilliant  proof  of  the  fact, 
that  the  various  sections  of  the  evangelical  Church  feel 
more  deeply  and  widely  every  year  their  inherent  unity. 

The  things  that  unite  them  are  greater  far  than  those 
which  divide  them. 

It  ought  to  be  urged  upon  our  Latin-American  friends  The  diversity  being 
that  in  the  histoiy  of  the  evangelical  Churches  we  have  uon^of^ffici^ncy 
a most  brilliant  illustration  of  the  evolutionary  method 
of  God.  Through  the  freedom  of  man,  identified,  con- 
secrated and  secured  in  the  gospel  of  Jesus  Christ,  the 
Divine  Spirit  is  creating  His  own  organs  of  life  and  ac- 
tion in  our  human  world.  The  unity  of  Protestantism 
is  not  that  of  an  engine,  but  that  of  a living  tree.  Such 
institutions  as  the  Young  Men’s  Christian  Associations 
and  Young  Women’s  Christian  Associations,  hospitals, 

Christian  schools  and  colleges,  social  settlements,  charity 
organizations  and  institutions  of  all  kinds,  Bible  Societies 
and  interdenominational  missionary  activities,  are  not 
mere  accidental  and  unrelated  phenomena.  They  are 
the  fruits  of  that  one  mighty  and  living  Spirit  which 
is  at  work  in  the  evangelical  Churches  as  a whole,  the 
organs  of  His  divine  efficiency.  It  is  of  the  utmost 
importance  wherever  the  Roman  Church,  with  its  lim- 
ited idea  of  unity  is  dominant,  that  this  true  idea  of  evan- 
gelical unity  should  be  thought  through,  mastered  and 
constantly  presented.  The  divisiveness  of  the  Spirit  of 
freedom  is  not  the  whole  fact.  When  it  is  truly  de- 
rived from  God’s  own  grace  its  unity  is  ever  at  work 
seeking  to  overcome  divisions  and  to  secure  outward 
unity,  not  by  external  means  and  physical  force,  but  by 
the  compulsions  of  a common  experience  and  a common 

69 


Some  think  that 
true  democracy  can 
rise  above  the  laws  of 
social  purity  and 
civic  righteousness 


The  proper  appeal  is 
to  the  teaching  of 
Jesus,  to  history  and 
to  experience 


aim.  It  is  a wonderful  confirmation  and  illustration  of 
this  position  that  the  principal  evangelical  Communions 
are  to-day  deeply  concerned  with  the  effort  to  secure  even 
further  cooperation  with  one  another.  They  recognize 
that  their  divisions,  so  far  as  these  hinder  unity  of  the 
spirit  and  active  fellowship,  must  be  overcome ; and  they 
are  endeavoring  everywhere  to  discover  those  methods 
by  which  their  one  faith  and  one  baptism  in  the  one  Lord 
may  lead  to  the  fulfillment  of  our  Lord’s  prayer  “that 
they  all  may  be  one.” 

(5)  Christianity  and  Social  Ethics.  The  defensive 
presentation  of  Christianity  to  educated  people  must  in- 
clude a full,  fearless  and  yet  sympathetic  statement  of  the 
ethical  demands  and  forces  which  it  brmgs  to  bear  upon 
human  conduct.  This  subject  is  dealt  with  elsewhere  in 
this  Report  on  its  other  and  practical  side.  Suffice  it  to 
say  now,  and  briefly,  that  the  Christian  apologist  has 
here  one  of  his  most  powerful  and  yet  most  difficult 
weapons.  But  in  its  use  he  has  the  inestimable  advan- 
tage of  direct  appeal  to  the  teaching  of  Jesus,  the  history 
of  Christianity  and  the  experience  of  many  nations  in 
modern  times.  The  shallow 'sociology  of  writers  like 
Herbert  Spencer  is  due  to  the  lack  of  spiritual  perception 
in  their  view  of  human  nature.  The  teaching  of  Jesus 
proves  with  astonishing  and  overwhelming  clearness  and 
power  that  the  laws  of  human  character  and  social  ex- 
perience spring  from  the  fact  that  man  is  a spiritual 
being,  related  directly  to  God.  He  is  not  made  for  the 
life  of  a higher  animal.  His  appetites  and  passions  are 
not  the  end  of  his  existence.  That  end  is  to  be  found 
only  in  the  knowledge  of  God  and  in  the  fulfillment  of 
righteousness.  Since  this  is  the  truth,  as  Jesus  Christ 
taught,  no  society  can  ignore  the  laws  of  purity  and  right- 
eousness without  endangering  human  life  as  a whole. 
Indifference  to  the  laws  of  personal  morality  in  the  lack 
of  continence,  indifference  to  the  laws  of  society  in 
the  practice  of  injustice  to  any  class,  is,  if  it  spread  far 
enough  and  wide  enough,  the  disintegration  of  human  na- 
ture. The  Japanese  and  the  Chinese  have  begun  to 
see  that  the  loss  of  their  ancient  forms  of  religion  has 
destroyed  the  foundation  of  their  ancient  form  of  social 
and  national  order.  Only  the  Christian  faith  can  replace 
the  loss,  with  foundations  laid  deeper  than  those  they  pos- 


70 


sessed  of  old,  because  laid  in  the  will  of  Jesus  Christ, 
the  Son  of  God. 

The  leaders  of  the  Latin-American  revolutions  sought 
in  certain  forms  of  social  idealism  for  the  secret  of 
political  organization  and  commercial  order  in  the  new 
republics.  They  sought  in  vain.  For  no  system  of 
government  needs  religious  ideals,  the  conception  of  the 
will  of  God  concerning  man,  more  than  a democracy. 
Liberty,  equality,  fraternity  were  religious  principles,  ele- 
ments of  the  life  of  Christian  Churches,  before  they  ever 
became  potent  war  cries  of  revolution  and  ideals  of 
society  in  general.  Apart  from  their  religious  origin 
and  inspiration,  these  three  great  ideals  have  neither 
truth  or  potency.  It  is  the  Christian  gospel  which 
first  established  them  as  working,  organizing  forces. 
From  the  Christian  Churches  they  passed  over  into  the 
general  consciousness  of  modern  nations.  But  apart 
from  the  Christ,  and  His  revelation  of  the  Father’s  will* 
and  purpose  concerning  man,  they  have  no  reality.  It  is 
their  passion  for  democracy  which  should  lead  the  rulers 
and  philosophers,  the  statesmen  and  lecturers  of  Latin 
America  ba*ck  to  Christ.  For  His  Kingship  is  the  only 
real  source  of  that  individual  liberty,  that  mystic  equal- 
ity, that  universal  fraternity,  whose  glory  appears  in  the 
Christian  life,  whose  ideal  is  striven  after  passionately  by 
the  evangelical  Churches,  whose  partial  fruits  are  seen 
in  the  incomplete  democracies  of  the  modern  world. 


7' 


Liberty,  equality  and 
fraternity  are  true 
rel'gious  principles 


The  Latin-American 
missionary  must 
carefully  study  his 
people 


Who  require  varied 
treatment 


CHAPTER  VI 

THE  PREPARATION  FOR  CHRISTIAN  WORK 
IN  LATIN  AMERICA 

Whoever  would  take  an  evangelical  message  to  any 
one  of  the  peoples  of  Latin  America  must  have  in 
mind  three  modifying  facts : First  of  all,  most  of  the 
peoples  among  whom  he  plans  to  live  and  work  are  not 
pagans.  They  are  Christians  in  name  and  deeply  resent 
a classification  which  puts  them  on  a par  with  pagan  peo- 
ples. The  Indians  of  the  mountains  and  forests  are 
practically  pagan  in  their  thought  and  ways,  but  only  a 
small  portion  of  the  work  attempted  hitherto  in  Latin 
America  has  addressed  itself  to  their  needs. 

Again  the  missionary  will  be  doing  much  of  his  work 
in  an  environment  of  enlightened  and  refined  civilization. 
He  must,  therefore,  acquaint  himself  with  the  accepted 
canons  of  taste  and  culture  which  have  grown  out  of  a 
rich  and  ancient  past.  Finally,  the  visitor  does 
not  in  the  estimation  of  the  Latin  American  bring  to  him 
a better  scheme  of  life  or  a finer  set  of  ideals.  He  is 
likely  to  prefer  his  own  ways  to  any  that  are  offered.  The 
wise  missionary  will  therefore  make  a careful  study  of 
the  Latin  American  before  beginning  his  work  in  South 
or  Central  America,  and  will  determine,  like  Paul, 
to  conform  himself,  his  plans  and  his  message  to  Latin 
peculiarities,  except  where  such  conforming  might  in- 
volve a betrayal  of  essential  principles. 

The  varied  strata  in  the  population  of  Latin  America 
are  well  set  forth  by  Dr.  Speer  in  the  report  of  the  Com- 
mittee on  the  Special  Preparation  needed  for  Latin 


72 


America:*  “There  is  a higher  social  class  which  lives  its 
life  in  Paris  when  it  can,  and  at  other  times  in  the  spirit 
and  ideals  of  Paris.  There  is  an  upper-middle,  intelligent 
and  capable  body  of  people  very  much  like  the  same 
type  of  people  in  our  own  land.  There  is  an  immense 
body  of  artisans,  farm  laborers  and  smaller  tradespeople, 
with  a strong,  often  dominant  strain  of  Indian  blood,  for 
the  most  part  ignorant  and  untrained,  and  shading  down 
at  the  bottom  into  a mass  of  illiteracy  and  economic  un- 
productiveness, which,  torpid  in  some  nations  and  cheer- 
ful spirited  in  others,  constitutes  in  all  a dreadful  dead- 
weight. There  is,  finally,  the  pure  Indian  population  of 
pastoral,  agricultural  or  nomadic  habits,  which  must  be 
reached  like  any  aboriginal,  uncivilized  people.”  It  may 
be  added  that  the  highest  class  is  educated  and  prevail- 
ingly agnostic  in  profession  ; the  others,  for  the  most  part 
uneducated,  are  often  fanatical. 

I.  The  Kinds  of  Missionaries  Needed. 

The  predominant  need  in  Latin  America  is  for  or- 
dained men  who  in  addition  to  preaching  ability  know 
how  to  develop  and  to  organize  the  churches  to  which 
they  minister,  and  for  educational  missionaries  who 
can  make  the  mission  schools  more  definitely  Chris- 
tian and  at  the  same  time  highly  efficient.  The 
ordained  missionary  who  can  preach  to  men  ac- 
ceptably, who  has  the  patience  which  keeps  at  a 
slowly  developing  task  until  he  reaches  abiding  results 
and  the  foresight  which  trains  a community  or  group  to 
which  that  task  may  be  transferred,  is  the  mainstay  and 
essential  basis  of  any  first-rate  missionary  enterprise.  The 
educational  missionary  who  knows  his  task  and  can  or- 
ganize it  properly,  who  is  a natural  leader  along  intel- 
lectual lines,  whose  culture  is  broad  as  well  as  reasonably 
deep,  is  an  important  factor  in  the  reaching  of  all  classes, 
well-born  as  well  as  humble,  cultured  and  uncultured 
alike.  In  Latin  America  the  conveyance  of  the  gospel 
message  calls  for  a large  force  of  missionaries  of  both 
these  types. 

Among  educational  missionaries  there  is  need  of  varied 


’ Fourth  Report  of  the  Board  of  Missionary  Preparation, 

p.  160. 


Latin  America 
preeminently  needs 
strong  missionary 
leadership 


73 


Educators  in  great 
variety  are  needed 


Industrial  develop- 
ment increasingly 
important 


Medical  opportunities 
less  abundant  than 
elsewhere 


Missionaries  to  Latin 
America  must  be 
amply  qualified 


types.  Schools  of  all  grades  and  kinds  must  be  main- 
tained with  efficiency.  Intelligent  supervision  is  one  of 
the  crying  needs  of  the  schools  now  established.  Schools 
intended  to  attract  the  representative  Latin  Americans 
must  maintain  first-rate  standards  and  will  require  men 
and  women  who  are  thoroughly  competent  for  large  re- 
sponsibilities at  home.  Real  educational  leadership  is  es- 
sential to  the  greatest  success.  Latin  Americans  value 
education ; their  leaders  are  in  touch  with  European 
standards. 

There  is  abundant  room  among  the  Indian  populations 
in  agricultural  regions  for  a large  increase  of  schools 
which  can  furnish  a good  agricultural  and  industrial 
training.  Some  excellent  beginnings  have  been  made,  but 
the  opportunity  is  wide  open.  For  the  non-Indian  popu- 
lations the  government  provides  fairly  well  for  this  type 
of  education. 

For  medical  missionaries  there  is  a limited  field  as  com- 
pared with  opportunities  in  other  parts  of  the  world. 
Each  republic  has  its  own  medical  schools  and  in  the 
cities  there  is  a reasonable  supply  of  trained  physicians 
and  surgeons.  In  most  of  the  Latin-American  countries 
a doctor  of  foreign  birth  must  pay  large  fees  and  pass 
technical  examinations  in  Spanish  or  Portuguese  in  order 
to  obtain  a license  to  practise  medicine.  Yet  in  Latin 
America,  as  elsewhere  over  the  world,  the  Christian  phy- 
sician who  ministers  freely  to  the  needy  and  the  poor  can 
bleak  down  many  barriers  raised  by  ignorance  and  preju- 
dice. There  are  great  areas  in  country  districts  where 
it  is  very  difficult  to  get  medical  aid.  In  Mexico,  Central 
America,  Ecuador  and  some  of  the  other  republics  the 
opportunity  seems  particularly  great.  There,  as  else- 
where, the  missionary  physician  opens  the  hearts  of  the 
people. 

2.  The  Qualifications  Needed. 

The  general  consensus  of  opinion  among  missionaries 
in  Latin-American  lands  anticipates  a strong  appeal  dur- 
ing the  next  quarter  of  a century  to  the  leading  minds 
of  those  republics,  and  demands  missionary  recruits  of 
the  highest  type,  who  have  a message  for  those  whose 
culture,  although  not  entirely  like  their  own,  is  fully 
its  equal.  Such  added  members  to  the  circle  of  devotfed 

74 


and  successful  workers  now  on  the  field  must,  in  general, 
be  well  rounded  in  their  development,  strong  in  body  and 
mind,  alert  to  many  interests,  men  and  women  of  force, 
courage  and  individuality.  An  attractive  personality  with 
some  distinctiveness  goes  far  in  gaining  a hearing  for 
the  missionary’s  message.  Among  specific  qualifications 
the  following  invite  emphasis : 

(1)  In  Latin  America,  not  less  than  in  other  lands, 
the  fundamental  quality  of  the  successful  missionary  is 
a deep  and  abiding  spirituality,  which  Dr.  Oldham  has 
described  as  “that  abiding  experience  of  the  presence 
and  power  of  the  Holy  Spirit  which  transforms  an  edu- 
cated man  into  a messenger  of  God.”  Such  an  experi- 
ence gives  a reserve  of  spiritual  vitality  which  enables 
one  to  meet  every  adverse  experience  with  equanimity, 
good  judgment  and  Christian  friendliness. 

(2)  Hardly  less  important  to  the  successful  mission- 
ary will  be  a thorough  education.  In  any  country  of  the 
world  missionary  leadership  draws  upon  every  range  of 
knowledge  which  the  best  university  training  furnishes. 
No  real  knowledge  goes  to  waste.  But  in  Latin  America 
the  times  seem  to  call  insistently  for  men  and  women  so 
well  read  in  history,  literature,  social  and  philosophical 
subjects  that  they  will  not  fail  quickly  to  comprehend  the 
Latin  mind  and  to  recognize  its  value  as  well  as  its  pecul- 
iarities. In  connection  with  a broad  and  fine  equipment 
intellectually  a successful  missionary  would  find  some 
form  of  specialization  of  real  value.  If  regarded  as  an 
authority  on  some  subject,  the  missionary  will  win  at- 
tention for  his  other  messages.  A thoroughness  of  cul- 
ture which  will  enable  a missionary  to  deal  on  even  terms 
with  the  leaders  of  Latin-American  life  and  to  win  their 
respect  will  be  a lifelong  asset.  This  specialization  may 
well  be  initiated  on  the  field,  and  in  consultation  with 
others,  so  that  in  each  mission  or  community  there  will 
be  missionary  specialists  in  varied  lines. 

(33  Another  indispensable  qualification  for  efficiency 
in  Christian  work  in  Latin  America  will  be  a natural  re- 
finement and  courtesy  born  of  sincerity,  a generous  spirit, 
a natural  friendliness  and  a real  love  for  the  people  of 
those  republics.  Kindly  and  genuine  good  manners  are 
deeply  appreciated  among  them.  They  are  an  affection- 
ate people.  “Whoever  would  find  them  friendly  needs 


Spiritually 


Cultured 


Naturally 

courteous 


With  linguistic 
ability 


Broad-minded 


Courses  on  the 
Bible 


On  Christian 
essentials 


only  to  show  himself  a friend  and  the  kind  of  a gentle- 
man whom  love  alone  creates.”  A rough  boorishness  or 
lack  of  sympathy  closes  many  avenues  of  usefulness. 

(4)  A factor  of  great  importance  is  linguistic  ability. 
A command  of  the  Spanish  or  Portuguese  languages,  the 
ability  to  speak  and  write  fluently  and  correctly,  is  of  su- 
preme value.  Latin  peoples  are  very  proud  of  their  musi- 
cal languages ; while  they  are  remarkably  indulgent  of 
the  mistakes  of  foreigners,  they  are  very  sensitive  to  im- 
perfect pronunciation  or  to  awkward  phrasing.  There 
are  a number  of  Indian  tongues  which  have  not  yet  been 
reduced  to  writing.  To  accomplish  this  fundamental 
task  there  will  be  required  a few  men  of  outstanding 
linguistic  power. 

(5)  A breadth  of  mind  which  issues  in  tactful  and 
generous  dealings,  fine  discernment  and  poise  of  judg- 
ment cannot  be  overestimated.  Missionaries  to  this  field 
have  so  many  sources  of  needless  annoyance  that  they 
must  be  men  and  women  of  large  calibre,  straightfor- 
ward, sincere,  ready  to  subordinate  personal  or  even  de- 
nominational advantage  to  cooperative  Christian  progress, 
letting  love  alone  rule  their  spirit. 

ij  u 

3.  Courses  of  Study  to  be  Followed. 

(1)  Courses  on  the  Bible.  No  knowledge  is  more 
essential  to  the  missionary  than  a mastery  of  the  Bible. 
Its  teachings  are  at  the  very  basis  of  the  evangelical  mes- 
sage. It  is  the  great  textbook  on  Latin-American  work. 
Courses  which  cover  its  history,  literary  content,  the  de- 
velopment of  doctrines,  the  interpretation  of  its  books 
and  its  archaeological  background  are  such  as  fit  the 
Christian  worker  for  his  difficult  task.  The  Latin-Amer- 
ican worker  should  be  familiar  with  the  Douay  version 
in  English  and  with  its  history,  and  acquainted  with  such 
Roman  Catholic  versions  as  are  available  in  Spanish  or 
Portuguese. 

(2)  Courses  on  the  Fundamentals  of  Christianity. 
Veteran  missionaries  often  declare  that  one  of  the  most 
important  lines  of  preparation  for  service  is  the  mastery 
of  the  essentials  of  Christianity.  One  who  cannot  give  a 
clear  reason  for  the  faith  that  is  in  him  is  unlikely  to  be- 
come an  effective  teacher  or  evangelist. 

76 


(3)  Courses  in  Languages.  It  has  already  been  stated  On  languages 
that  exacting  standards  must  be  maintained  in  the  ac- 
quisition of  Portuguese  for  work  in  Brazil  and  of  Span- 
ish for  work  elsewhere  in  Latin  America.  Every  mis- 
sionary should  determine  to  become  a master  of  the  lan- 
guage of  the  country  to  which  he  goes.  While  both  Span- 
ish and  Portuguese  seem  relatively  easy  to  the  student 

who  has  already  mastered  Latin  and  French,  they  demand 
severe  application  for  idiomatic  and  accurate  use.  Under 
really  competent  instructors  a missionary  may  get  a 
strong  and  valuable  start  in  these  languages  before  going 
out  to  the  field.  It  is  advisable  that  he  take  time  enough 
to  get  fairly  well  grounded  in  them  before  taking  up 
work.  Experienced  missionaries  differ  as  to  the  expedi- 
ency of  going  to  Spain  or  Portugal  in  order  to  learn  the 
languages  at  their  best. 

(4)  Cotcrses  in  Latin-American  History,  Literature  On  Latin-American 

j *7*  A*  Tj.  ’ ’i.  i.’  1 .*.1  j.  • * i.  historv.  literature 

and  Ciznhzation.  it  is  quite  essential  that  a missionary  to  and  life 
Latin  America  should  familiarize  himself  with  the  his- 
tory and  the  literature  of  the  Latin  peoples.  It  will 
help  him  to  understand  the  Latin  mind,  its  traditions, 
trends,  viewpoints,  prejudices  and  values.  The  Latin 
race  is  persistently  loyal  to  fine  traditions.  It  is  naturally 
reverent.  But  it  starts  from  its  own  foundation  concepts 
and  has  developed  its  own  social  and  political  systems. 

The  wise  religious  worker  will  avoid  all  political  com- 
plications, all  boastfulness  or  jingoism  and  will  make 
himself  an  ambassador  of  peace  and  good  will.  Cal- 
deron’s “Latin  America ; Its  Rise  and  Progress,”  is  prob- 
ably the  best  single  book  from  which  to  gain  this  Latin- 
American  background. 

(5)  Courses  in  Religion.  A missionary  to  Latin  On  the  history  and 

America  needs,  of  course,  to  be  well  read  in  church  his-  Protestantism  and  of 
tory  and  in  the  history  of  doctrine.  He  must  be  able  to  Catholicism 

make  clear  to  himself  and  to  others  the  reasons  for  the 

distinctions  of  Protestantism  and  to  draw  a clear  line  be- 
tween peculiarities  and  essentials  in  religion.  He  greatly 
needs  also  to  be  equipped  to  distinguish  between  Roman 
Catholicism  at  its  best  and  at  its  worst.  In  many  parts 
of  the  Latin-American  field  aboriginal  paganism  has 
helped  to  transform  Romanism  into  something  which  in- 
telligent and  devout  Roman  Catholics  would  repudiate. 

To  adopt  again  the  suggestive  words  of  Dr.  Speer,  “mis- 


77 


In  philosophy 
literature 


sionaries  should  be  equipiied  to  make  distinctions  and 
should  study  at  home  the  history  and  character  of  Roman 
Catholicism  in  both  its  good  and  its  evil  aspects,  and  be 
able  on  the  field  to  appreciate  what  pagan  elements  the 
religion  has  taken  up  and  what  it  brought  with  it  in  the 
baser  traditions  and  practices  from  home.  The  relation 
of  Latin-American  Roman  Catholicism,  ecclesiastically, 
theologically,  socially,  historically  and  politically  to  North 
American  and  European  Roman  Catholicism  should  also 
be  studied,  and  also  the  history  of  the  Roman  Catholic 
Church  in  the  whole  of  South  America,  and  its  history  in 
the  particular  country  to  which  the  candidate  is  to  go. 
This  study  should  include  the  relation  of  the  Church  to 
the  conquest  of  Latin  America  by  Spain  and  Portugal,  to 
the  early  settlements,  to  slavery  both  Indian  and  African, 
and  to  the  Indian  peoples.  It  should  cover  the  history, 
character  and  influence  of  the  Roman  Catholic  missions 
and  of  the  work  of  the  different  orders,  the  history  of 
the  early  Church,  the  development  of  the  Roman  Cath- 
olic Church,  the  Reformation,  the  counter-reformation 
movements,  the  Inquisition,  the  points  of  difference  and 
of  agreement  between  Roman  Catholicism  and  Protest- 
antism, the  history  of  the  controversies  between  them, 
the  history  of  the  Papacy,  and  the  present  situation  and 
problems  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church.”* 

It  seems  hardly  necessary  that  general  courses  in  the 
history  of  religion  should  be  covered  by  the  candidate 
for  service  in  Latin  America,  yet  the  better  the  equip- 
ment he  has  for  understanding  religious  development  the 
greater  will  be  his  insight  into  the  problems  of  his  field. 

(6)  Courses  in  Philosophy  and  Literature.  A mis- 
sionary to  Latin  America  deals  in  the  main  either  with 
those  who  have  no  doubts,  or  with  those  who  have  been 
turned  away  from  religion  to  various  types  of  rational- 
istic belief,  spiritism  or  skepticism.  A mastery  of  the 
history  of  philosophy,  especially  of  later  times,  is  almost 
essential  to  any  grappling  with  these  difficulties.  A 
knowledge  of  general  literature,  of  literature  in  Span- 
ish or  Portuguese,  and  of  the  stronger  and  better  works 


'Fourth  Report  of  the  Board  of  Missionary  Preparation, 
pp.  170,  171. 


78 


in  French,  will  be  of  much  value  to  the  student  of  Latin- 
American  problems. 

(7)  Other  Courses.  No  missionary  can  know  too 
much ; whatever  he  may  acquire  will  find  its  place.  He 
should  seize  every  opportunity  to  become  acquainted  with 
the  management  and  methods  of  Sunday  schools,  young 
people’s  societies,  boys’  and  girls’  clubs,  kindergartens, 
civic  and  philanthropic  movements,  the  Christian  Asso- 
ciations, and  other  forms  of  applied  Christianity.  Even  a 
slight  knowledge  of  medicine  and  of  hygienic  methods 
will  be  of  value  to  the  itinerant.  A knowledge  of  how  to 
ride  and  how  to  handle  animals  will  also  help  him.  Every 
missionary  should  master  simple  bookkeeping  and  office 
system.  He  should  cultivate  any  musical  talent  which  is 
in  him. 

4.  How,  When  and  Where  to  Prepare. 

One  who  looks  forward  to  a Latin-American  ca- 
reer cannot  expect  to  achieve  all  the  preparation  hereto- 
fore mentioned  before  he  begins  his  work.  Some  of  it 
belongs  naturally  to  his  college  or  university  career,  some 
of  it  to  his  specializing  graduate  days,  some  of  it  to  his 
studious  days  on  the  field,  some  of  it,  no  doubt,  to  his 
first  furlough.  Every  good  missionary  is,  in  some  sense, 
a lifelong  student  of  the  problems  which  he  faces. 

Without  going  too  closely  into  detail,  it  may  be  worth 
while  to  urge  that  the  college  or  university  course  in- 
clude the  mastery  of  the  biblical,  philosophical,  educa- 
tional, linguistic  and  social  basis  of  this  future  study. 
Latin,  French  and  German,  sometimes  Spanish,  political 
science,  European  history,  literature,  sociology,  the  prin- 
ciples and  methods  of  education,  and  national  history  and 
politics  are  subjects  which  are  offered  to  good  advantage 
in  every  standard  institution  of  higher  learning. 

In  the  last  years  of  university  training  or  during  the 
specialized  years  that  follow  in  the  theological  or  train- 
ing school  or  in  some  other  professional  institution  may 
be  taken  the  study  of  religion,  of  Latin-American  history, 
of  the  history  of  missions,  Roman  Catholic  and  Protestant 
alike,  and  of  social  and  religious  conditions. 

The  earnest  missionary  will  mark  out  for  himself  an 
intensive  study  of  the  conditions  in  his  own  field,  of  its 
history,  of  its  special  needs  and  of  the  methods  which 


In  miscellaneous 
kinds  of  knowledge 


The  wise  organization 
of  this  course  of 
preparation  and  its 
distribution 


79 


The  supreme 
importance  of  spirit- 
ual and  personal 
fitness 


will  yield  an  abundant  harvest.  He  will,  likewise,  keep 
abreast  of  the  rapidly  changing  conditions  and  interests 
in  the  Latin-American  and  other  centers  of  modern  civil- 
ization. 

The  furlough  tasks  need  not  be  outlined  to  a mission- 
ary who  is  alert  and  ambitious.  Enough  that'  it  be  used 
for  intellectual  and  spiritual  refreshing  and  for  a read- 
justment and  reinterpretation  of  positions  thrown  out  of 
alignment  by  the  shock  of  spiritual  warfare.  The  first 
furlough  ought  to  be  the  time  of  greatest,  most  rapid 
gain. 

The  task  of  preparation  for  aggressive,  successful  mis- 
sionary service  in  Latin  America  is  large  and  important. 
Many  noble  missionaries  have  done  their  work  with  far 
too  little  preparation.  It  may  be  truly  said  that  the  per- 
sonal and  spiritual  factors  in  preparation  outweigh  the 
intellectual.  The  high  ideal  outlined  above  should  not 
deter  the  one  who  desires  to  work  in  Latin  America,  yet 
knows  himself  to  be  only  partially  fitted  to  stand  its 
strains.  Whoever  gives  himself  whole-heartedly  to  serv- 
ice in  these  attractive  lands  and  patiently  does  his  best  can 
find  a useful  and  permanent  place. 


8o 


CHAPTER  VII 


FINDINGS 

1.  The  supreme  need  of  Latin  America  is  the  procla- 
mation of  the  gospel  to  each  republic  and  to  every  indi- 
vidual in  its  purity,  simplicity  and  power  and  the  carrying 
out  of  all  the  functions  of  well  organized  evangelical 
churches. 

2.  By  abundant  data  the  Commission  is  convinced  of 
the  wide-spread  need  of  Christian  stimulus  and  uplift  in 
the  social  life  of  Latin  America,  and  of  the  present  inad- 
equate ministry  in  this  respect,  of  either  the  evangelical 
or  the  Roman  Catholic  Churches.  It  is  urged,  therefore, 
that  the  social  message  of  the  gospel  should  be  given  con- 
stant expression  by  the  establishment,  wherever  necessary, 
of  institutions  and  agencies  definitely  suited  to  actual  con- 
ditions. Such  a ministry,  whatever  the  forms  it  assumes, 
must  be  vitally  related  in  motive  and  method  to  the  spir- 
itual objective  of  the  evangelical  Churches. 

3.  It  is  highly  desirable  that  special  means  be  used  to 
win  the  attention  of  the  educated  classes  of  Latin  Amer- 
ica to  the  truths  of  Christianity.  Three  methods  have 
been  emphasized : first,  the  publication  and  circulation  of 
appropriate  literature  in  the  form  of  booklets  and  pam- 
phlets, written  by  competent  persons  and  attractively  stat- 
ing and  illustrating  the  central  Christian  teachings ; sec- 
ond, the  selection  of  prominent  exponents  of  constructive 
Christian  thought,  whose  words  command  -{vide  respect, 
to  deliver,  at  the  chief  university  centers  and  capital 
cities,  courses  of  public  lectures,  such  as  those  delivered 

81 


in  the  Orient  on  the  Haskell  Foundation ; and  third,  the 
establishment  at  suitable  centers  of  libaries  containing  a 
carefully  selected  and  ever-increasing  list  of  works  on 
religion,  philosophy,  science,  Christian  history  and  biog- 
raphy. We  urge  that  these  valuable  suggestions  be  put 
into  vigorous  operation  as  wisely  and  as  speedily  as  pos- 
sible. 

4.  While  emphasizing  our  belief  that  the  work  of  a 
missionary  demands  special  devotion,  special  gifts  and 
special  temperament,  it  is  our  abiding  conviction  that  be- 
cause Latin  peoples  possess  an  historic  background  and 
atmosphere,  gentle  and  refined  manners,  and  are  uniquely 
susceptible  to  culture  and  to  the  graces  culture  brings,  the 
work  in  Latin  America  demands  missionaries  who  with 
evangelical  fervor  and  evangelizing  gifts  combine  broad 
vision,  wide  culture  and  diplomatic  temperament.  In  our 
judgment  there  seems  no  place  for  inadequately  equipped 
men  in  Latin  America.  The  Latin  is  quick  to  discern  the 
real  lack  in  his  rougher-mannered  brother  from  the  ag- 
gressive North  or  elsewhere,  and  quicker  to  resent  the 
implied  suggestion  that  anything  or  anybody  is  good 
enough  for  them.  On  the  other  hand,  none  is  quicker 
than  he  to  appreciate  the  effort  of  sympathetic  students 
of  Latin-American  customs,  traditions  and  manners.  We, 
therefore,  strongly  recommend  the  various  Boards  to  ex- 
ercise a wise  and  firm  discrimination  in  their  selection  of 
missionaries  for  Latin  America,  to  choose  men  of  the 
highest  type  who  may  be  able  in  college  and  university 
centers  to  command  recognition  and  confidence,  and  who 
will  be  prepared  to  take  a place  of  leadership,  spiritual, 
social,  intellectual  and  civic,  in  any  locality  where  they 
may  be  called  to  labor.  A Pauline  gift  of  sympathy,  as 
well  as  a Pauline  grace  of  adaptability,  seems  almost  a 
prerequisite  to  success  in  Latin  America. 

5.  There  is  abundant  evidence  that  among  those  who 
have  become  zealous  members  of  the  evangelical  Churches 
there  are  those  whose  minds  are  filled  with  intense  hos- 
tility to  the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  a hostility  which  is 
at  times  expressed  in  language  of  extreme  bitterness. 
Without  abating  in  the  least  degree  our  conviction  that 
much  of  the  teaching,  spirit  and  influence  of  that  Church 
in  Latin  America  is  unscriptural  and  unhealthy,  we  be- 

82 


lieve  that  those  who  represent  the  evangelical  Churches 
should  not  only  do  their  work  with  the  full  consciousness 
that  they  possess  the  truth,  grace  and  authority  of  our 
Lord,  the  Living  Head  of  the  Church,  but  also  with  the 
clear  ambition  to  give  their  strength  to  the  constructive 
declaration  and  application  of  the  gospel ; remembering 
that  in  all  lands  where  religious  freedom  prevails  the 
Protestant  and  Roman  Catholic  Churches  exist  side  by 
side,  though  differing  in  their  wide,  radical  and  irrecon- 
cilable doctrinal  divergences ; and  not  forgetting  that  con- 
troversial discussions,  when  these  are  rendered  necessary 
by  circumstances,  should  be  conducted  not  only  with  firm- 
ness, learning  and  conviction,  but  also  with  the  simplicity, 
kindness  and  charity  which  are  in  Christ  Jesus,  who 
“opened  the  kingdom  of  heaven  to  all  believers.” 


83 


MEMBERS  OF  THE  COMMISSION 


CHAIRMAN 

The  Rt.  Rev.  William  Cabell  Brown,  D.D.,  Protes- 
tant Episcopal  Bishop  Coadjutor  of  Virginia,  Rich- 
mond. 

VICE-CHAIRMAN 

President  W.  Douglas  Mackenzie,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  Hart- 
ford Theological  Seminary,  Hartford,  Conn. 

Sir  Andrew  Wingate,  K.C.I.E.,  London. 

SECRETARY 

The  Rev.  J.  H.  McLean,  Presbyterian  Church  in  the 
U.  S.  A.,  Santiago,  Chile. 

executive  committee 

The  Rev.  Ed.  F.  Cook,  D.D.,  Secretary,  Board  of  Mis- 
sions, Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,  Nashville, 
Tenn. 

The  Rev.  William  F.  Oldham,  D.D.,  Secretary,  Board 
of  Foreign  Missions,  Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 
New  York. 

President  Charles  T.  Paul,  Ph.D.,  College  of  Missions, 
Indianapolis,  Ind. 

The  Rev.  Frank  K.  Sanders,  Ph.D.,  Director,  Board 
of  Missionary  Preparation,  New  York  City. 

The  Rev.  Josiah  Strong,  D.D.,  President,  American  In- 
stitute for  Social  Service,  New  York  City. 


The  Rev.  Manuel  Andujar,  Superintendent,  Methodist 
Episcopal  Mission,  San  Juan,  Porto  Rico. 

The  Rev.  J.  L.  Bruce,  Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 
South,  Bello  Horizonte,  Brazil. 

84 


The  Rev.  J.  S.  Cheavens,  Southern  Baptist  Convention, 
Saltillo,  Mexico. 

Mr.  Myron  A.  Clark,  General  Secretary,  National  Com- 
mittee of  the  Young  Men’s  Christian  Associations  of 
Brazil,  Rio  de  Janeiro. 

The  Rev.  J.  G.  Dale,  Superintendent,  Associate  Re- 
formed Presbyterian  Mission  in  Mexico. 

The  Rev.  J.  W.  Fleming,  D.D.,  Pastor,  St.  Andrew’s 
Scotch  Presbyterian  Church,  Buenos  Aires. 

Mr.  E.  J.  D.  Hercus,  M.A.,  Evangelical  Union  of  South 
America,  Buenos  Aires. 

The  Rt.  Rev.  Lucien  Lee  Kinsolving,  D.D.,  Protes- 
tant Episcopal  Bishop  of  Brazil,  Rio  Grande  do  Sul. 

The  Rev.  R.  F.  Lenington,  Moderator,  Synod  of  Bra- 
zilian Presbyterian  Church,  Curityba,  Brazil. 

The  Rev.  Arcadio  Morales,  Presbyterian  Church  in  the 
U.  S.  A.,  Mexico  City. 

The  Rev.  G.  Campbell  Morgan,  D.D.,  London. 

The  Rev.  F.  S.  Onde^idonk,  Superintendent,  the  Texas 
Mexican  Mission,  San  Antonio,  Texas. 

Dr.  Jose  de  la  Rua,  Buenos  Aires. 

The  Rev.  James  F.  Smith,  Presbyterian  Church  in  the 
United  States,  Ytu,  Brazil. 

The  Rev.  J.  W.  Tarboux,  President,  Granbery  College, 
Juiz  de  Fora,  Brazil. 

The  Rev.  W.  Charles  K.  Torre,  British  and  Foreign 
Bible  Society,  Buenos  Aires. 

The  Rev.  Alejandro  Trevino,  Templo  Bautista,  Mon- 
terey, Mexico. 


85 


CORRESPONDENTS  OF  THE  COMMISSION 


ARGENTINA 

The  Rev.  Robert  F.  Elder  (Evangelical  Union  of  South 
America),  Tres  Arroyos. 

Mr.  Charles  J.  Ewald  (Traveling  Secretary  for  South 
America,  Young  Men’s  Christian  Associations), 
Buenos  Aires. 

Mr.  Jay  C.  Field  (Young  Men’s  Christian  Association), 
Buenos  Aires. 

The  Rev.  Tolbert  F.  Reavis  (Christian  Woman’s  Board 
of  Missions),  Buenos  Aires. 

BRAZIL 

The  Rev.  John  W.  Price  (Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 
South),  Uruguayana. 

The  Rev.  H.  C.  Tucker  (American  Bible  Society;  Presi- 
dent, Brazilan  Evangelical  Alliance),  Rio  de  Janeiro. 

The  Rev.  W.  A.  Waddell,  D.D.,  Ph.D.  (President,  Mac- 
kenzie College),  Sao  Paulo. 

CHILE 

The  Rev.  Goodsil  F.  Arms,  M.A.  (Rector,  Concepcion 
College,  Methodist  Episcopal  Church),  Concepcion. 

The  Rev.  William  B.  Boomer  (Presbyterian  Church  in 
U.S.A.),  Santiago. 

The  Rev.  W.  E.  Browning,  D.D.,  Ph.D.  (Principal,  In- 
stituto  Ingles;  Presbyterian  Church  in  U.S.A.),  San- 
tiago. 

The  Rev.  David  Reed  Edwards  (Presbyterian  Church 
in  U.S.A.),  Curico. 


86 


The  Rev.  James  F.  Garvin  (Presbyterian  Church  in 
U.S.A.),  Concepcion. 

The  Rev.  W.  H.  Lester,  D.D.  (Pastor,  Union  Church), 
Santiago,  Chile. 

The  Rev.  Efrain  Martinez  (Pastor,  Church  of  the  Re- 
deemer), Santiago. 

Miss  Florence  E.  Smith  (Presbyterian  Church  in 
U.S.A.),  Valparaiso. 

The  Rev.  Jesse  Smith  (Presbyterian  Church  in  U.S.A.), 
Copiapo. 

The  Rev.  C.  M.  Spining  (Presbyterian  Church  in 
U.S.A.),  Valparaiso. 

Mr.  A.  R.  Stark  (British  .and  Foreign  Bible  Society), 
Valparaiso. 

The  Rev.  William  H.  Teeter  (Methodist  Episcopal 
Church),  Santiago. 

Mr.  W.  Merrill  Wolfe  (Institute  Ingles,  Presbyterian 
Church  in  U.S.A.),  Santiago. 

COLOMBIA 

The  Rev.  Walter  S.  Lee  (Presbyterian  Church  in 
U.S.A.),  Barranquilla. 

CUBA 

The  Rev.  Juan  Orts  Gonzalez  (Presbyterian  Church  in 
U.S.A.),  Sagua  la  Grande. 

The  Rt.  Rev.  Hiram  R.  Hulse,  D.D.  (Bishop  of  Cuba, 
Protestant  Espiscopal  Church  in  U.S.A.),  Havana. 

The  Rev.  M.  N.  McCall  (Southern  Baptist  Convention), 
Havana. 

GUATEMALA 

Charles  F.  Secord,  M.D.  (Independent  medical  mission- 
ary) , Chichicastenango. 

MEXICO 

Miss  Jessie  L.  P.  Brown  (Christian  Woman’s  Board  of 
Missions),  Piedras  Negras. 

The  Rev.  J.  G.  Chastain  (Southern  Baptist  Convention), 
Guadalajara. 

Mrs.  John  Howland  (American  Board  of  Commissioners 
for  Foreign  Missions),  Chihuahua. 

87 


Ezra  Lines,  M.D.  (Christian  Woman’s  Board  of  Mis- 
sions), Piedras  Negras. 

Miss  Mary  Irene  Orvis  (Christian  Woman’s  Board  of 
Missions),  Monterey. 

Professor  Andres  Osuna  (Commissioner  of  Education, 
Federal  District),  Mexico  City. 

Miss  Lelia  Roberts  (Principal,  Colegio  Normal;  Metho- 
dist Episcopal  Church,  South),  Saltillo. 

The  Rev.  Alfred  C.  Wright  (American  Board  of  Com- 
missioners for  Foreign  Missions),  Chihuahua. 

PANAMA 

The.  Rev.  C.  G.  Hardwick  (Wesleyan  Methodist  Mis- 
sionary Society),  Panama  City. 

PERU 

Mr.  Edward  M,  Foster  (Evangelical  Union  of  South 
America),  Arequipa. 

The  Rev.  John  Ritchie  (Evangelical  Union  of  South 
America),  Lima. 

PORTO  RICO 

The  Rt.  Rev.  Charles  B.  Colmore,  D.D.  (Bishop  of  Porto 
Rico,  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  in  U.S.A.),  San 
Juan. 

The  Rev.  Thomas  Moody  Corson  (American  Missionary 
Association),  Humacao. 

Mr.  W.  G.  Coxhead  (Young  Men’s  Christian  Associa- 
tion), San  Juan. 

The  Rev.  Edward  A.  Odell  (Presbyterian  Church  in 
U.S.A.),  Mayaguez. 

The  Rev.  Merritt  B.  Wood  (Christian  Woman’s  Board 
of  Missions),  Bayamon. 

URUGUAY 

Mr.  P.  A.  Conard  (Associate  Continental  Secretary  for 
South  America,  Young  Men’s  Christian  Associations), 
Montevideo. 

VENEZUELA 

The  Rev.  Frederic  F.  Darley  (Presbyterian  Church  in 
U.S.A.),  Caracas. 


88 


OTHERS 

The  Rev.  Enoch  F.  Bell  (American  Board  of  Commis- 
sioners for  Foreign  Missions),  Boston,  Mass. 

The  Rev.  Henry  K.  Carroll,  LL.D.  (Federal  Council  of 
the  Churches  of  Christ  in  America),  Washington, 

D.  C. 

The  Rev.  S.  H.  Chester,  D.D.  (Presbyterian  Church  in 
U.S.),  Nashville,  Tenn. 

The  Rev.  Francis  E.  Clark,  D.D.,  LL.D.  (United  Society 
of  Christian  Endeavor),  Boston,  Mass. 

The  Rev.  A.  E.  Cory,  D.D.  (Foreign  Christian  Mission- 
ary Society),  Cincinnati,  Ohio. 

Mr.  John  Davidson  (Director,  Evangelical  Union  of 
South  America),  Edinburgh,  Scotland. 

Mr.  Charles  Earle  (South  American  Missionary  So- 
ciety), London,  England. 

The  Rev.  A.  W.  Halsey,  D.D.  (Presbyterian  Church  in 
U.S.A.),  New  York  City. 

President  Henry  Churchill  King,  D.D.,  LL.D.  (Oberlin 
College),  Oberlin,  Ohio. 

The  Rev.  John  M.  Kyle,  D.D.  (former  missionary  in 
Brazil),  Lowell,  Mass. 

The  Rt.  Rev.  Arthur  S.  Lloyd,  D.D.  (Protestant  Epis- 
copal Church  in  U.S.A.),  New  York  City. 

Mr.  Manual  Lozano  (Mexican  Institute),  San  Antonio, 
Texas. 

The  Rev.  Eric  Lund,  D.D.  (Editor,  Revista  H omiletica) , 
Los  Angeles,  California. 

The  Rev.  Charles  S.  Macfarland,  Ph.D.  (Federal  Coun- 
cil of  the  Churches  of  Christ  in  America),  New  York 
City. 

Mr.  J.  E.  McAfee  (Presbyterian  Church  in  U.S.A.), 
New  York  City. 

Professor  Donald  C.  MacLaren  (former  president  of 
Mackenzie  College,  Sao  Paulo,  Brazil),  New  York 
City. 

The  Rev.  M.  T.  Morrill,  D.D.  (Mission  Board  of  the 
Christian  Church),  Dayton,  Ohio. 

Mr.  Delavan  L.  Pierson  (Editor,  The  Missionary  Reviezv 
of  the  World),  New  York  City. 

Professor  William  R.  Shepherd,  Ph.D.  (Columbia  Uni- 
versity), New  York  City. 

89 


The  Rev.  George  Smith  (Evangelical  Union  of  South 
America),  Toronto,  Canada. 

• Mr.  Charles  E.  Tebbetts  (American  Friends’  Board  of 
Foreign  Missions),  Richmond,  Indiana. 

The  Rev.  Charles  L.  Thompson,  D.D.  (Presbyterian 
Church  in  U.S.A. ; Chairman,  Home  Missions  Coun- 
cil), New  York  City. 

The  Rev.  G.  B.  Winton,  D.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal 
Church,  South),  Nashville,  Tenn. 


90 


QUESTIONS  SENT  TO  CORRESPONDING  MEMBERS 
OF  THE  COMMISSION 

1.  How  far  have  you  felt  the  problems  involved  in  racial  dif- 
ferences in  Anglo-Saxon  missionaries  working  with  Latin  people? 
Also  those  involved  in  political  relationships  of  North  and  Latin 
America?  Do  these  problems  seem  to  be  increasing  or  decreas- 
ing in  your  field,  and  why? 

2.  Can  you  distinguish  among  the  doctrines  and  forms  of 
religious  observances  current  among  the  people  among  whom 
you  work  any  which  are  mainly  traditional  and  formal  from 
others  which  are  taken  in  earnest  and  are  genuinely  prized  as  a 
religious  help  and  consolation? 

3.  What  do  you  consider  to  be  the  chief  moral,  intellectual 
and  social  hindrances  in  the  way  of  a full  acceptance  of  Chris- 
tianity? 

4.  What  attitude  should  the  Christian  preacher  take  toward 
the  religion  of  the  people  among  whom  he  labors,  and  toward 
the  leaders  of  that  religion? 

5.  Which  elements  in  the  Christian  gospel  and  the  Christian 
life  have  you  found  to  possess  the  greatest  power  of  appeal, 
and  which  have  awakened  the  greatest  opposition? 

6.  Has  your  experience  in  missionary  labor  altered  either  in 
form  or  in  substance  your  impression  as  to  what  constitute  the 
most  important  and  vital  elements  in  the  Christian  gospel?  It 
so,  what  practical  changes  in  your  work  has  this  suggested? 

7.  Have  you  felt  the  need  of  methods  other  than  evangelistic 
and  educational  to  make  a “point  of  contact”  with  the  people — 
something  like  the  institutional  church,  the  Young  Men’s  Chris- 
tian Association,  social  settlements,  hospitals,  orphanages,  etc.? 

8.  Why  is  it  that  Protestant  missions  have  reached,  with  few 
exceptions,  only  the  lower  classes?  Should  we  make  attempts, 
with  special  churches  and  institutions,  to  win  the  upper  classes? 

9.  Do  you  believe  that  results  in  your  field  have  been  com- 
mensurate with  expenditures,  or  could  a higher  efficiency  be 
secured? 

10.  Do  you  believe  that  mission  work  in  Latin  America  should 
aim  more  directly  at  the  conversion  of  the  individual  or  at  the 
purifying  and  uplift  of  society? 

91 


11.  How  much  would  be  gained  by  a large  emphasis  of  the 
social  message  of  the  gospel,  and  its  solution  of  individual  and 
national  problems  of  these  countries? 

12.  What  should  be  the  distinctive  aim  of  Protestant  mis- 
sions in  Latin  America? 

13.  Considering  that  the  dominant  idea  of  the  Panama 
Conference  is  to  be  constructively  helpful  to  Latin  America, 
that  the  people  are  generally  sensitive,  and  that  the  an- 
nouncement of  the  Conference  naturally  arouses  inquiry; 

(1)  How  far,  in  its  discussions,  should  stress  be  laid  on 
such  matters  as  illiteracy,  illegitimacy,  impurity  of  social  re- 
lation, dishonesty,  etc.? 

(2)  How  far  should  the  Conference  deal  with  the  past 
and  present  conditions  of  the  ecclesiastical  systems  that  pre- 
vail in  Latin  America? 

(Note. — The  above  questions  were  sent  to  correspondents  in 
Latin  America.  An  abridged  list  of  questions,  based  on  the 
above,  was  sent  to  missionary  administrators  and  other  authori- 
ties in  the  home-base  lands.) 


9^ 


PANAMA  CONGRESS  REPORTS 

No  meeting  held  in  the  Western  Continent  has  contrib- 
uted so  largely  to  the  progress  of  Christian  civilization  in 
Latin  America  as  the  Panama  Congress. 

This  pamphlet  contains  the  Report  of  one  of  the  Eight 
Commissions  which  reported  at  Panama  after  months  of 
careful  study  and  preparation  and  wide  correspondence  with 
Latin  American  authorities  in  various  fields. 

The  Commissions  and  their  chairmen  were  as  follows; 

I  SURVEY  AND  OCCUPATION,  Mr.  E.  T.  Colton. 

II  METHOD  AND  MESSAGE,  Bishop  Wm.  Cabell 
Brown. 

III  EDUCATION,  Professor  Donald  C.  MacLaren. 

IV  LITERATURE,  Professor  Andres  Osuna. 

V  WOMEN’S  WORK,  Miss  Belle  H.  Bennett. 

VI  THE  CHURCH  IN  THE  FIELD,  Bishop  Homer  C. 
Stuntz. 

VII  THE  HOME  BASE,  Mr.  Harry  Wade  Hicks. 

VIII  CO-OPERATION  AND  THE  PROMOTION  OF 
UNITY,  Rev.  Charles  L.  Thompson. 

These  Commission  Reports  and  the  discussion  upon  them 
are  being  published  in  three  volumes  under  the  editorial 
supervision  of  a committee  of  which  Dr.  Frank  K.  Sanders 
is  chairman. 

Three  men  distinguished  as  interpreters  of  missionary 
thought  in  their  own  countries  and  languages  were  at  Pan- 
ama, and  they  are  writing  the  Popular  Reports  in  Spanish, 
Portuguese  and  English,  as  listed  below. 

Following  the  Panama  Congress,  Regional  Conferences 
were  held  in  Cuba,  Porto  Rico,  Chile,  Argentina,  Brazil 
and  Colombia.  The  Reports  of  these  Regional  Conferences 
will  be  published  together  in  one  volume,  in  English. 

1.  Three  volumes,  containing  the  reports  in  full  of  the 
eight  Commissions,  with  discussions.  Advance  price  per 
set,  $2.00.  After  date  of  publication,  $2.50.  Carriage  extra 
in  both  cases. 

2.  Report  of  Regional  Conferences,  one  volume,  cloth. 
Price,  $1.00,  prepaid. 

3.  Popular  History  and  Report  of  the  Congress,  in  Eng- 
lish, by  Professor  Harlan  P.  Beach,  of  Yale  University. 
Cloth.  Illustrated.  Price,  $1.00,  prepaid. 

4.  Popular  History  and  Report  of  the  Congress  in 
Portuguese,  by  Professor  Erasmo  Braga,  of  Brazil.  Cloth. 
Illustrated.  Price  in  the  United  States,  $1.00,  prepaid. 


5.  Popular  History  and  Report  of  the  Congress,  in 
Spanish,  by  Professor  _ Eduardo  Monteverde,  of  Uraguay. 
Cloth.  Illustrated.  Price  in  the  United  States,  $1.00,  pre- 
paid. 

Prices  quoted  are  in  U.  S.  (Gold)  Currency. 

NOTE. — It  is  expected  that  the  reports  in  Portuguese 
and  Spanish  (Nos.  4 and  5)  can  be  offered  in  Latin  America 
at  much  reduced  prices,  of  which  definite  announcement  will 
be  made  at  a later  date. 

Advance  Combination  OfFers 

(Good  until  date  of  publication  of  the  three  volume  report) 

1.  Three  Volume  Report  and  any  one  of  the  four  other 
books.  $2.75,  carriage  extra. 

2.  Three  Volume  Report  and  any  two  of  the  four  other 
books.  $3.50,  carriage  extra. 

3.  Three  Volume  Report  and  any  three  of  the  four  other 
books.  $4.25,  carriage  extra. 

4.  Three  Volume  Report  and  all  four  of  the  other 
books.  $5.00,  carriage  extra. 

GENERAL  DIRECTIONS 

Orders  from  Latin  America  for  the  Portuguese  volume 
should  be  sent  to  Rev.  H.  C.  Tucker,  Caixa  454,  Rio  de 
Janeiro,  Brazil. 

Orders  from  Latin  America  for  the  Spanish  volume 
should  be  sent  to  Prof.  Eduardo  Monteverde,  Avenido  18 
Julio  968,  Montevideo,  Uruguay. 

The  Missionary  Education  Movement  will  notify  each 
person  placing  an  order,  of  the  date  of  publication,  in  ad- 
vance, allowing  time  to  forward  remittance  without  causing 
delay  in  shipment. 

Make  remittances  payable  to  Missionary  Education 
Movement,  and  mail  to  its  address  at  156  Fifth  Avenue,  New 
York  City. 

Use  International  Post  Office  Money  Order  or  Draft  on 
New  York  in  sending  money  from  points  outside  the  United 
States.  Do  not  enclose  paper  or  metal  currency.  In  the 
United  States  add  10  cents  for  exchange  if  personal  check 
on  bank  outside  of  New  York  City  is  used. 

Send  to  MISSIONARY  EDUCATION 
MOVEMENT 

156  Fifth  Avenue,  New  York  City 


